Bratersky Maxim Vladimirovich – Sc.D. in Political Sciences, Leading Researcher, Head of Sector, INION RAS
For centuries (or more precisely, for about 500 years), the world was built around a powerful, aggressive and dynamic center – the West. From this center came the innovations, both technological and socio-political, it triggered waves of colonization and transformed the planet, it shaped the global agenda by creating and enforcing a particular world order, albeit unfair, but quite stable. At the same time, this state of affairs seemed natural, because all the alternatives were extremely unrealistic – for example, the communist idea, which ultimately could not withstand competition with consumer society secured by capitalism. Today, we have reached a point where the global system based on liberal capitalism has outlived its usefulness. The global economy no longer has room for growth within the framework of the capitalist liberal model, the reserves for growth have already been exhausted, and the engine of this growth, the West (in some interpretations – the «North»), is beginning to weaken relatively, and divisions are emerging within it. In recent decades, the West has lost ground in the real economy and concentrated its advantages in financial and technological spheres, but today even its financial and monetary systems seems to be under threat, and its technological leadership is being challenged by rising giants from other parts of the world. What is happening to the West in this era of change? How are its positions and potential shifting in relation to the rest of the world, the non-West (or the «global majority»)? How is the West reconfiguring itself, what trends are emerging within the transatlantic community, what structural changes are occurring within the West? This article addresses these questions and aims to contribute to the discussion on possible ways to develop the global political economy with an emphasis on the place and role of the «collective West» in it.
the West, the North, Euro-Atlantic community, economic growth, green transition, militarization, right turn.
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