The end of the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin wall looked like the triumph of the Western world and democracy against the power of Communism and authoritarian regimes. But the great implicit turning point is that paradoxically, 30 later, for the first time in 2 centuries, the Western world is not the most powerful economy in the world. If the sentence of Emmanuel Kant saying that “the first measure of power is money” Asia looks to be the leading continent in the world of today, silently but effectively, and this turning point will be major in the coming years. If the Western world has to defend its values, especially democracy and freedom of expression, it has to accept this new area and abandon neo colonial temptations, which is a very good thing. Several movements show this major impact of Asia from 2001: the September 11 attacks, the OMC agreement, and the emergence of Asia as the leading economic power in the world of today.
First the September 11 attacks are the sad symbol of the revival of wars of religions. The Al Qaida movement, which was greatly organized and very intelligent leaders (not that much Ben Laden who was a heir and was first of all providing money, a very useful network and was a pretty good showman with his gun and his nasty face), but for instance Al Zawahiri who was an Egyptian doctor and the real thinker of the Al Qaida movement. It stems from the theories of Sayyid Qutb, who was a teacher and a journalist, who promoted offensive Jihad while Jihad is traditionally defensive (the big Jihad which is the war against himself to become a better person and the small Jihad is the community of believers, the Umma, is attacked). The strategy of Al Qaida began with the war in Afghanistan when the CIA gave many weapons to Islamists to face Soviets. But in the 1990’s, Ben Laden declared war to the United States, made bomb attacks for instance in Sudan in 1997 but his action was not taken seriously enough by the Americans. This serious mistake will be paid a terrible price in September 11. In my opinion, and I am not alone to think that, this attack was extraordinary, even if of course the worst way. “If you measure the genius of somebody with the greatness of intentions, the small means and the great results, Muhammad is a genius” wrote Lamartine. Of course Al Qaida will never represent Muhammad, and the subject of this article is not about him, but if you measure extraordinary actions this way Lamartine does, this attack, led only by 17 people armed with knives, was a great one. In my opinion, in the long run, it is the first sign of Asia, as it is the place in the world where these attacks were organized, as taking a major role again in the history of the world, as it did in the past.
Second the rise of China was extraordinary. The leader Deng Xiaoping took power in the beginning of the 1980’s, after years of cultural revolutions, and succeeded to create a unique economic rise in history. If China took a lot of technologies from the Western world, they also opened entrepreneurship, invested massively in education (which led 800 million Chinese people out of poverty in 40 years), and created long term strategies which were really efficient. China reconciliated itself with Confucianism : a culture of hard work, more focus on the group, especially the family, than in individuals, the return of ancient Confucian selection process to select civil servants and top administrators, and broadly the will to create a society with a great focus on knowledge. This system, that inspired for instance the French great schools competitions in the XIXth century, is again at the center of the Chinese system. All those measures contributed to a great revival of the economy, at least during 30 years. The OMC agreements in December 2001 were a turning point, that allowed a massive development of China in the following years. Anyway the fact the current leader Xi Xinping wants to do a shift to communism, which broke the implicit contract between the Chinese population and the Communist party (the acceptance of dictatorship if the Communist Party gives to China the great power it had before and economic prosperity) were negative and creates more incertainty than before. However China is today competing with the United States (for instance in innovation), is a great power again, and is positioned for a very long time as a potential leading power in the world. The path from the 80’s, to this extend, is extraordinary. It is also showing the importance of Asia in the world of today and its detrimental impact in this century.
Last Asia is today the leading continent in the world. The real competitor of the Western world in Asia, and the revival of this continent is great. The wisdom of Asia, which was celebrated by André Gide, is showing today its strength. It looks that Asia is actually the first leading continent in the world, with the Pacific Ocean as the most important part of the world in economics or geopolitics. It looks that Asia, unlike the Western world, didn’t abandon old school values and behaved a wise people great philosophers would have approved. The focus on education, long term thinking, the willingness to build the future are a mentality Hegel for instance would have really liked. It is the reason why the Western world of today has a lot to learn from Asian countries and their way to approach the XXIst century. It looks that the idea of Clash of civilizations of Samuel Huntington proved to be true, and this intellectual showed a great sense of prospective as he wrote this book not a long time after the collapse of the USSR. However, from now on, the new leading continent of the world is Asia and in my opinion it will be seen as a major silent turning point in History.
The observer 