Mr. Mahbubani: Undermining the United States to Shift Power East

Kishore Mahbubani claims the United States is on the decline. He supports this assertion by explaining the United States has lacked sufficient leadership as a global power. The lack of leadership, Mahbubani highlights, is a result of the United States skewed self image of being “the source of all solutions”. This image has allowed the US to hold onto outdated positions and Mahbubani believes that the they have grown too stubborn to move over for “the Asian Century” . Despite his views on the United States’ irresponsible leadership over the last several decades, Mahbubani believes that strength within Western ideals have allowed other countries to rise. By implementing western principles of democracy through the premise of equality on the broad spectrum of the entire world, Mahbubani believes that social justice can finally be reached. The west has dominated too long and it is time for them to share their power with the rest of the world, Mahbubani sees this as the democratic solution to global issues. Mahbubani explains that the west must move over and accept “the fact that the asian states are becoming more competent at handling regional and global issues” and because they have failed to do so, “the west has gone from the world’s primary problem solver to being its single biggest liability”. Although his anti-western solution to global problems paints the United States in negative ways, Mahbubani has justified and illustrated claims against the US. He points out the United States failure in addressing has failed to address the Middle East conflict, nuclear proliferation limitations, stalled world trade and the global warming crisis. However, this evidence does not provide a strong enough base for the United States to hand over their power to the rest of the world. Mahbubani’s conclusion and key points are focused not on creating a more stable world, but rather he hopes to promote the rise of Asian nationalism. While undermining the US, Mahbubani creates an illusion that the only way to improve the united states’ relationship with the rest of the world is to hand over their power to the new era of Asian control who would provide a “more stable world order”. Though justified in his evaluation of the United State lack of success on the global level, Mahbubani key points are on bias terms and do not genuinely seek to improve the global condition but rather help shift power from the west into the hands of Asian states.