Can the West Still Learn?

The decline of Western dominance isn’t coming. It’s here. The Global South has stopped waiting, and the West is still looking in the mirror. Kishore Mahbubani offers no comfort—just a warning. Can the West still learn?

Context

Kishore Mahbubani’s Has the West Lost It? is short, sharp, and uncomfortable. It doesn’t ask the West to apologize. It demands that it adapt. That’s a different kind of challenge.

As a diplomat who has spent decades in the field, I’ve watched the illusion of Western primacy fray at the edges. Mahbubani simply gives it language. And what he says resonates far beyond Singapore.

This briefing is not a review. It’s an acknowledgment. The West no longer owns the world’s narrative. And unless it wants to lose more than influence—unless it wants to lose relevance—it better start listening.

The Mahbubani Thesis, Distilled

The West confused victory in the Cold War with a license to rule history.
It believed liberal democracy was destiny, not design.
It missed the real milestone of 2001: not 9/11, but China’s WTO accession.
It underestimated the psychological blowback of humiliating others—Russia, the Islamic world, Africa.
It outsourced strategy to slogans: freedom, markets, values—without thinking through outcomes.

Mahbubani’s key message: The West isn’t losing power. It’s losing perspective. And that is far more dangerous.

Reactions from the Rest

The Global South isn’t “rising.” It has risen. Quietly. Functionally. Often in defiance of Western advice. New alliances—like BRICS+—reflect not ideology, but autonomy. Digital sovereigns like India, Indonesia, and Nigeria are shaping their own networks. ASEAN’s Digital Masterplan is no footnote—it’s a blueprint.

Currency diversification. Trade corridors. South–South cooperation. These aren’t protest moves. They’re post-Western planning.

The message is simple: We’ll work with you. But we won’t wait for you.

The West’s Illusions

Mahbubani identifies several fatal assumptions. Here are eight that diplomacy still dances around:

Liberalism follows development: In the Islamic world, modernization has reinforced religiosity—not secularism.
NATO expansion was harmless: Even Kissinger and Brzezinski warned about Russian humiliation. The blowback was predictable.
Western media offers a global lens: It doesn’t. It offers a Western pessimism loop that blinds even itself.
Multilateralism still means legitimacy: The UNSC’s outdated composition makes a mockery of credibility. India still out. France still in.
Democracy equals prosperity: China says no. India says maybe. The EU says we’re tired.
Religion recedes with growth: In much of the Muslim world, it strengthens.
The West still sets the agenda: Not anymore. The G7 is shrinking. The E7 is rising. The strategy is stale.
America and Europe share interests: Europe absorbs the fallout. The U.S. walks away.

Why This Matters Now

Because Africa’s population will match Asia’s by 2100. See UN projections.

Because Europe can’t outsource its stability to Washington forever.

Because many in the West still think the rest of the world wants to be like them. They don’t. They want to be heard. Respected. Engaged on equal footing.

And because we’ve entered an age where doing less might mean achieving more—if strategy replaces slogans.

Strategic Watchpoints

New blocs: Quiet, functional, not needing Western blessing.
Legal sovereignty: National courts pushing back against extraterritorial reach.
Migration pressures: driven by climate, conflict, and economics—mostly in regions the West destabilized.
Digital arms races: From semiconductors to undersea cables.
Multilateral overreach: Reform or irrelevance.

Conclusion

Mahbubani is not anti-Western. He’s post-Western. That distinction is vital. His provocation is not to shame, but to alert. His tone may be sharp, but his aim is strategic clarity.

And if the West still has one advantage, it is this: the ability to learn. But only if it stops assuming it’s always the teacher.