World Order By Chapter Summary A. Kissinger

During the 1970s, the world was full of conflicts between western democracy and the emerging communism, collectively known as the cold war. And amidst the political storm rose Henry A. Kissinger, a political scientist and the US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. Kissinger won a Nobel Prize for his efforts in ending the Vietnam War and helped push relationships with communist superpowers like the Soviet Union and emerging China.[1]

In 2014, Kissinger wrote World Order, a book that describes how international order has been achieved in the past and what steps the world should take to finally have a unified world. Kissinger believes that there are four main world orders: Westphalian peace, Islamic extremism, Sinocentrism, and US idealism.
Westphalian peace comes from the peace treaties signed by the European states to end the Thirty Years’ War. The idea behind this order is that each nation creates a strong sovereignty and stays out of other nations’ domestic disputes. The Islamic extremism order comes from the Middle East and bases governance through Islam, trying to rid the world of non-believers. Sinocentrism ties into the “Mandate of Heaven” used by the Chinese emperors that says that one sole being has power over all lands. Finally, we have the newest form of order in US idealism. This order entails that all nations govern each other, with the stronger nations like the US protecting the weaker nations. Throughout the semester we have dissected globalization into various dimensions that can now be applied to these world orders to show their strengths and flaws.

A major part of globalization is culture and this ties into all four world orders.
Each order derives power from common cultural systems. The Sinocentrism order accepted those who spoke Mandarin, using an understanding of language as showing respect to the Chinese culture, warranting respect in return. In Islamic extremism, religion is the defining factor in one’s character and connects people around the globe. People who do not align themselves with Islam are seen as enemies, even if they have no harmful intentions. The Westphalian peace sees culture as identifying with the nation-state you are from. We see this in global events like the FIFA world cup where complete strangers support each other based on the colors and flags they wear. And finally, the US idealism order is very similar to Manfred Steger’s “g-local” ideals. Modern democracy balances pride in one’s own culture and the world as a whole. The old form of nationalism and pride in one’s country has adapted to globalism and pride in the world as a
whole.

Political globalization is a main driving factor of modern globalization. From creating the European Union, the first prominent multinational economy, to various peacekeeping programs like the United Nations, the World has become extremely unified which again, supports the US democratic Idealism. The supporting of other nations is part of the US’s goal and in most cases, forming a multinational committee is more beneficial than one governing power. Especially in the case of politics, older world orders like the Westphalian peace and the Islamic extremism seem outdated. This is mostly because in the past mass globalization did not seem possible so previous powers chose to focus more on themselves.

The advancement of science and technology plays a crucial part in globalization and is influenced by the order that governs it. Sinocentrism saw technology’s dualism in cases like gunpowder that could be used to create art in fireworks to weapons in guns. An emperor’s intentions could never be questioned so unethical innovation could occur. In the case of Westphalian peace, a lack diffusion of technology would occur, leaving underdeveloped nations behind as strong nations innovate and advance their societies. In Islamic extremism, we see technology used for terrorism now, but if the world was united under Islam, it would be expected that a shift towards societal advancement through science could arise. Finally, through US idealism we have seen great scientific advancements in the last few decades. Through this “world-state” we can create a system like H. G. Wells’s, “Open Conspiracy” that promotes implementing science and technology into government and create a connected globe where ideas and technology can be easily spread and the ethics behind innovations can be assessed.

With new ecological threats and global warming, a united world has almost become a necessity to preserve humanity.
Which of the four orders has the best approach to this? In the case of Sinocentrism, an emperor of the world could force major improvements in ecological preservation, however, nothing would prevent corruption of power and could lead to pollution and destruction of land. The Westphalian peace order would also have a hard time to create marginal positive changes due to a divided world and the tragedy of the commons. This is the current state of world with nations like Austria and China working to reduce emissions while nations like the US and the UK creating unsustainable and massive amounts of pollution. The Islamic extremism order would be interesting because the Islamic religion preaches that humanity, “should seek to protect and preserve the environment because by so doing the protect Allah,” and his creations.[2] This prevents corruption in government and could actually unify the world and reduce devastating changes to the environment. Finally, we see that in the best case of US idealism can the world achieve Roy Scranton’s Mitigation response to climate change. The unified world could enforce regulation on resource use and begin actual positive change. The main issue with this order is that without 100 percent commitment from all parties, nothing will get done. This ties back into the issues of the Westphalian peace because replacing this order with
complete democracy currently is impossible. Humanity needs to unify to save itself and hopefully, a single world order could actually achieve positive changes to the environment.

Even though Donald Trump is trying to fire US idealism, I hope that it survives and replaces the isolationistic views of the Westphalian peace order. I believe in this system because it creates balances in every part of life from economics and politics to innovation and environmental conservation. Organizations like the United Nations and the European Union show the power of supporting other nations and allow our species to advance past the outdated society we live in today. Globalization is new to humanity, and the best was to promote it is through democracy and regulation. And through this order an equality among nations could finally be achieved, bringing nations in Africa and South America into the developed world. I hope that eventually, the democratic party in the US holds the presidency and a majority in Congress so that the democratic world order can finally be supported by the nation that it started from and spread to all nations in the modern world.