Munich Security Report 2020: Westlessness

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Munich Security Report 2020: Westlessness
For Munich Security Conference
Summary of Study
 
Bottom Line: As Western nations continue to shun liberal democracy, the world is becoming less Western. This “Westlessness” has an impact on global conflict and the international arena as much as it does on the domestic politics of individual nations.

Since the end of the Cold War at least, “The West” was defined by the things that held it together, namely “a commitment to liberal democracy and human rights, to a market-based economy, and to international cooperation in international institutions.”

Spurred by shifting power dynamics and breakneck technological changes, Western democracies are beginning to rethink and abandon each of these facets. The result is that “The world is becoming less Western. But more importantly, the West itself may become less Western, too.”

According to the 2020 Munich Security Report, this “Westlessness” is a sign of the breakdown of the West “as a relatively cohesive geopolitical configuration anchoring a normative model of global order in which commitments to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law are central.”

https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/public_affairs/2020/04/01/munich_security_report_2020_westlessness_488074.html