Why the Global South are falling out of love with the West and the liberal order
- Shifting balances of power, the West’s intransigence over Ukraine and the poor outcomes of its foreign interventions have left the Rest wary
- The South will not take sides with the East or West without making sure their interests are looked after. The romance with the West is well and truly over
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a 1962 Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical based on a Roman farce by Plautus (254–184 BC), that became a 1966 musical film. It’s about Roman slave Pseudolus who tried to win his freedom by persuading his owner Hero to win the heart of Philia next door, who is promised to soldier Miles Gloriosus.
The show became a success when Sondheim changed the opening song, Love is in the Air, to Comedy Tonight, showing how romance is better sold as comedy.
The musical enjoyed various reruns, including a Cantonese version in Hong Kong in 2009.
Gracious guests do not go to parties openly condemning other guests. The Rest are coming to realise that after the West disposes of its identified existential threats, they will be probably be next.
Today, every major Western event starts with an obligatory address by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Each Nato leader then repeats an reaffirmation of the values- and rules-based order, exhorting listeners (the Rest, but mostly the South) to join their cause or face “consequences”.
What has happened on the way to the new Roman forum is that the Rest are answering back. The former slaves, colonies or near-colonies will no longer be silent when former masters insist on the old order where they rule and you obey.
Second, the United States used its unipolar and unchallenged power to dominate up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it no longer has the resources to fully control the post-Cold War order. Rome was never dangerous when it was secure. It was most dangerous when it felt its position challenged.
In short, the arguments for the idealistic liberal-democratic rules and values-based order falter on the morality, logic and evidence of who rules, whose values and the evidential outcomes.
Whose world? What order? Time has passed for West to call the shots
Second, if the Western leadership shifts towards transactional aid or sanctions, then the Rest must hedge their bets using the historically tested balance-of-power approach whereby no single power can be dominant.
The South will not take sides with either the East or the West without making sure that their interests are looked after. They will side with one to balance the other.
Third, the evidence so far in countries where the West, or through the transatlantic security alliance of Nato, has intervened on bringing democracy or human rights, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, have experienced failing or failed governance.
The West is in a metaverse of its imaginative creation, whereas the Rest are trying to figure out how to realistically survive the existing liberal order.
The romance with the West is over, comedy is turning into farce. That is what is happening on the way to the new Roman forum.
Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective