The Once and Future World Order

The epic history of world order, revealing how the decline of the West may be a good thing for its future.

Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and the rise of other great powers – especially China – threaten to unravel today’s Western-led world order. Many fear this would lead to global chaos. But this is a Western illusion.

Surveying five thousand years of global history, political scientist Amitav Acharya reveals that world order existed long before the rise of the West. Moving from ancient Sumer, India, Greece, and Mesoamerica, through medieval caliphates and Eurasian empires into the present, Acharya shows that humanitarian values, economic interdependence, and rules of inter-state conduct emerged across the globe over millennia. History suggests order will endure even as the West retreats. Instead of fearing the future, the West should learn from history and cooperate with the Rest to forge a more equitable order.