Thought Papers

Shivshankar Menon

Former National Security Advisor, India

The Present World Order

Since the 2008 global economic crisis, we have witnessed the end of the post-Cold War unipolar moment and the relative decline of the West; the fragmentation of the globalized world economy with the rise of protectionism and regional plurilateral agreements like RCEP, TTP, TTIP etc.; the return of geopolitics; and an increasing divergence between the distribution of economic and military power.

Geopolitics, in the traditional sense, has returned with a vengeance.. Asia and the Western Pacific are now the centres of gravity of world politics and economics. The world's major hotspots and its sources of economic growth are here. There is already a new order emerging in this extended region, marked by the relative decline of the West and the rise of China and several other powers.