(Oct 27): The need for a new world order is a recurring theme in the era of an emerging multipolar world. For the US, the current global hegemon, it involves adjusting to the reality of a shifting balance of power, which the US must come to terms with.

Yet, nostalgia for the era of American supremacy is still very much in evidence today. The US president Joe Biden’s remarks at a campaign reception speech on Oct 20 reveals this:  

“We were in a post-war period for 50 years where it worked pretty damn well, but that’s sort of run out of steam. Sort of run out of steam. It needs a new — a new world order in a sense, like that was a world order, said Biden.

In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow: “We absolutely agree with Mr Biden. This is a rare case when we absolutely agree with what he said. Indeed, the world needs a new order based on completely different principle(s).”

Peskov elaborated that such a “new world order” must be based on international law, mutual respect, mutual benefit, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.”

Perkov omitted to point out that the foundations of the new world order are already being laid. And that this is not a variation of the US-centric world order which has generated incessant war, killed millions and wrought destruction and carnage, with the ongoing Israel war on Gaza the latest incarnation of world disorder brought by Pax Americana.

But change is coming. Palestinians will not only survive. The Palestinian state will triumph and emerge as the latest country in the world and state to be recognised by the United Nations. 

Too many innocent lives have been lost but history is being rewritten in the Middle East and elsewhere. But when it is finally done, Palestinians will not only win their full rights to land and freedoms denied by the US-backed Zionist cabal. They will also be contributing to a new page in the making of the new world order.  

June 16, 2009 and Sept 7, 2013 may well go down in history as key dates ushering in the beginning of a new world order.

Since the end of the Second World War, especially with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, the US perverted version of the world order with its perpetuation of global inequality and monopoly of benefits by the US and ally countries has remained relatively unchallenged and unchanged.

US leaders and allies continually watchful for any geopolitical challenge that would affect their national interests have been able to engage in successful interventions and military campaigns against countries in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

Today, two new forces have emerged to challenge the existing world order that has preserved dominance of the world’s population of over eight billion in 195 countries by mainly Western countries comprising the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and European Union countries with their population of under one billion.

The first force consists of the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa grouping (BRICS) which met in South Africa for its 15th meeting on Aug 23, 2023; the second is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) grouping which met in Beijing on Oct 18 to mark its tenth anniversary.

BRICS has a more explicit political agenda aimed at a multipolar world to contest US control and hegemony over the world's international order. BRI has an economic agenda to build new models of development and greater flows of investment and trade for the economic progress of participating, especially poorer, countries.

Critics in the West, to counter the two groupings, have conflated the two agendas to claim that they are inferior to the Western model of economic development encapsulated in the US-led mission of building liberal democracies; promoting human rights and freedoms; and fighting the axis of evil, authoritarianism and dictatorships.

The failure of the West to live up to its rhetoric of equitable growth, non-discrimination and fair distribution of global resources for the poor and powerless whilst respecting the needs, rights and independence of the global South has cast aspersions on their commitment to a more equal and just international world order. It has also brought into the limelight the motives and hypocrisy of the forces behind the anti-BRICS and anti-BRI campaigns. This explains the Western-controlled international media’s news coverage which has focused on discrediting the aspirations and objectives of what is the most potent challenge to business as usual in a Western-dominated world. 

Since its establishment, BRICS has been routinely disparaged and dismissed as a “hodgepodge” of nations that would never amount to any kind of force or weight in international politics.

What we are seeing today has turned out to be the reverse. BRICS is the hottest geo-political club in the world with 11 member countries as of January 2024. The new members include the world’s oil and gas giants of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates which will give the grouping considerable economic clout. Earlier, before its Johannesburg summit, 22 countries had formally sent applications to join BRICS while another 23 countries informally expressed their intention to join.

It is possible that a BRICS majority, if not dominant, world economic order will arrive well before 2030. According to International Monetary Fund data, the Western-dominated G7's share of global GDP fell from 34.3% in 2010 to 29.9% in 2023, while the five-member BRICS' share increased from 26.6% in 2010 to 31.2% today. This development will become more pronounced as more South countries, especially in Africa, turn against the neo-colonialism of France and other EU countries as is happening in the Sahel countries and West Africa.

As for BRI, it has received even harsher criticism from Western policymakers and media. Because it has been conceptualised by China, it has been alleged to be simply a self-serving geopolitical tool with little or no benefit for participating countries whilst imposing heavy debt burdens on them.

The actual record which Western media has concealed from its readers?

As of August 2023, China had signed more than 200 BRI cooperation agreements with over 155 countries and 30 international organisations across five continents. Participating countries include almost 75% of the world’s population and account for more than half of the world’s GDP.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has explained that in pursuit of common development and prosperity, ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not a choice in BRI cooperation.

"What we stand against are unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and decoupling and supply chain disruption."

"This is why the BRI is never a threat to others' development."

Representatives from other countries have expressed support for the difference between the BRI and Western forms of development cooperation.

According to Naseem Khan Achakzai, executive director of the Grandview Institution in Pakistan: "Contrary to the Western-led model, the BRI prioritises pragmatic infrastructure and economic development without imposing political conditions."

Sudheendra Kulkarni, former director of operations of the Prime Minister's Office of India has emphasised: "The BRI has become the largest and most beneficial project in the modern history of the world to promote common development and common prosperity."

There can be no doubt that Western leaders and media will try every trick in the book to discredit BRICS and BRI. There will also be attempts to divide the members and undermine the achievements and future plans of the two groupings. But it is clear that history is being revised by the global South; and this time around, there will be no turning back.  

Lim Teck Ghee is a former senior official with the United Nations and World Bank.