Can the West win over the rest?
In a more transactional world the price of influence is going up
It has become common to describe the world as divided between a reinvigorated Western bloc and an autocratic alliance of China and Russia. Yet this way of thinking has its limitations. For a start, the West is not always united, as Emmanuel Macron’s botched vanity trip to China demonstrates. And, more strikingly for the great geopolitical contest of the 21st century, at least 4bn people, or more than half of the world’s population, live in over 100 countries that do not want to pick sides.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Can the West win over the rest? ”
From the April 15th 2023 edition
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