News Analysis: West reflects on its own systems while looking to emerging economies

Ahead of the 53rd edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), to be held on Feb. 17-19, the Munich Security Conference Foundation released Monday an international security report entitled "Post-Truth, Post-West, Post-Order?".

The bewilderment embodied in the title shows that Western politicians are forced to or have taken the initiate to contemplate their interior political and social problems and the international order.

Wolfgang Ischinger, MSC chairman, said at the traditional MSC Kick-off event that "the international security order today is probably more volatile than at any other point after the end of World War II."

As problems increase and the sense of security declines, more Western people believe less and less that their systems are able to deliver positive outcomes for them and increasingly favor national solutions and closed borders over globalism and openness, the report said.

That is part of the reasons that populist movements opposing critical elements of the Western status quo have gained ground in many Western societies.

Last year, political outsiders succeeded in several elections and referenda, while the establishment was dealt major blows. And even in countries where populists only received a small share of the vote, they often exert a defining influence.

The report blamed populists for "twisting facts or even by spreading outright lies" to exploit the insecurities and grievances of the electorate, drawing a conclusion that "post-truth" has a good reason to be the word of the 2016.

Norbert Lammert, president of the German Bundestag, or the national parliament, said recently that three "striking events" have illustrated the challenges facing the West, referring to the change of the U.S. administration and Donald Trump's inauguration speech, Britain's official request to leave the European Union (EU) and the imminent constitutional reform in Turkey.

As the United States might shift from being a provider of public goods and international security to pursuing a more unilateralist, maybe even nationalistic foreign policy, the West may be on the brink of a post-Western age, when non-Western actors are shaping international affairs, the report said.

Against such a backdrop, more people look to the East and have placed high hope on China because of its unique development model, the increasing weight of emerging markets and developing countries in the world economy.

This is also because the international community expects the emerging economies and developing countries to play a bigger role in helping maintain and improve the world order as well as promote world peace and development.

China's initiatives and philosophy have won more recognition from all around the world thanks to China's active participation in international affairs, including World Economic Forum, climate change conference in Paris, the Iranian nuclear issue and issues of the Korean Peninsula.

China has always called for an open and win-win cooperation model featuring a well-coordinated and inter-connected approach, and a model of fair and equitable governance in keeping with the trend of the times, and a balanced, equitable and inclusive development model.

As Michael Moller, the director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), has said, the international community needs to unite to address challenges and pursue common development. Endit