This episode features an in-depth conversation with Dr. Samir Puri on the big questions related to global cooperation, competition and what he refers to in the sub-title of his latest book as the ‘ Great Global Rebalancing that’s Changing our World”. In this book, Samir -who has worked as a diplomat in the British foreign office, as an academic and now think tanker based in Singapore- argues that one the most crucial developments we are currently witnessing is one of “Westlessness” – i.e. a waning influence of Western powers and the ‘West in General’ and at the same time a rise of influence of non-Western indicators of power, influence and ways of doing things.
This does not mean that the West is in hopeless decline or imploding as many pundits argue, but rather that the Western-dominated indicators, processes and norms that have determined global governance and international cooperation since the Second World War are shifting dramatically at many levels and in almost every single domain of global politics.
We talk about some of the empirical evidence that underpins his arguments and examine some of the most pressing political, economic and moral implications for future policy-making. This also includes a conversation about how an increasingly fragmenting and pluralizing world can and will be governed and how policy-makers in Western and non-Western capitals could and should respond.