TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
When the West fails the rest and the East is a mess
All RCEP member states and aspiring member states do not want the US and China, in the main, to clash, as if they do, they will feel completely crushed between these two behemoths.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Desolate scene: A smoke plume erupts during Israeli bombardment on the Palestinian enclave near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on Nov. 12, 2023. (AFP/Fadel Senna)
T
he West is generally seen as those countries that have a strong and resilient transatlantic relationship. In this case, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are deeply embedded into the institutions and value structures of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union.
That being said, the West is sufficiently flexible enough to include Japan and South Korea. Hence, since the Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the likes of Japan and South Korea have been brought into the confidence of NATO. Leaders from the two Asian countries attended the NATO Summit in Lithuania in September.
However, regardless of how one may slice and dice it, the West seems proud of its embrace of democracy as a way of life.
The rest, however, are countries that have aspired to be as economically affluent as the West, only to have come short on each of the steam, electric, industrial and information revolutions. The rest, for the lack of a better word, have failed thoroughly in each of these revolutionary epochs. They may have some modicum of democracy and capitalism yet fail in any efforts to transition from one stage of economic development or the other.
The rest, in other words, aspire to be on par with the West, going as far as wanting to model their societies on the values and mores of the West, only to realize that the bar of admission is too high.
For example Turkey, granted it is the second-largest military power in NATO, but the elites in Istanbul have had to wait almost forever to be considered equal to the West not only in terms of its military prowess. The same goes for Japan and South Korea.
Aware that the concept of the West and East no longer hold any traction and currency, the international community has come up with the notion of Global North and Global South.
