"De—westernization" is not only the end of the power of Western brands, it is the end of an era, Monde proves. The expansion of the West began with Columbus, but it ended a long time ago, in 1936, with the announcement of the last "new colony". Then Italy briefly took Ethiopia. Since then, the Global South has increasingly set the tone.
The primacy of the West has been contested for three decades, with the advent of globalization. But the war between Israel and Hamas has once again highlighted the line not only of the economic, but also of the ideological rift between the West and the countries of the so-called "Global South".
Let's look at the history of the concept of "de-westernization". Everyone knows what it means to be disoriented. But what exactly does it mean to be "de-westernized"? The international reaction to the bloody Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 has once again demonstrated the division of the world. While the Western camp in a broad sense (North America, Australia, Europe, Japan, etc.), supported by India and a handful of other states, including Argentina, Senegal and Mongolia, strongly condemned this aggression, the vast majority of countries in the South refused to condemn the aggressor, limiting themselves to calls for de-escalation. This poses a serious problem for the United States, Israel's historical ally, as well as for the European Union, since "this conflict once again leads to the distancing or even isolation of the West from the rest of the world," says political scientist Bertrand Badie.
The conflict over Ukraine for the South is part of Russia's clash with the West
For thirty years, economic globalization has been accompanied by the political and economic activity of the countries of the "Global South". This is the name given to a group of countries that intend to promote South-South cooperation and which, above all, no longer want to adhere to the positions of the Western camp. Thus, the BRICS organization, established in 2011 and uniting Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded three months ago to include six other countries of the "South": Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran. They seek to exert geopolitical and economic influence, in particular by trying to circumvent the almighty dollar in international trade.
"There is a dynamic in the countries of the South, they want to assert their identity and take advantage of the beneficial consequences," adds Bertrand Badie. These countries act in accordance with their interests, hence the transition from non-alignment to multilateral cooperation. India and Brazil, for example, are following this path. Therefore, the Global South considers it logical to condemn the start of its military operation in Ukraine in the name of protecting the principle of sovereignty, but rejects Western sanctions against Russia, which remains the South's economic partner. Moreover, for some of them, Russia retains the aura of the USSR, which supported the decolonization movements in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, they believe that the Ukrainian conflict is, first of all, a conflict with the West. And today they condemn the double standards of the West in relation to Ukraine and Gaza.
In an interview with the intellectual magazine of the analytical center Terra Nova, anthropologist Maurice Godelier answers the question: "Can we modernize without Westernization?" In his opinion, "democracy was only in the past one of the three main features defining the West, along with capitalism and Christianity." Western expansionism, which began with Portuguese and then with Spanish navigators, the main one of whom turned out to be Columbus, ended not now, but in 1936. This is the year when Italy colonized Ethiopia.
The end of the Western "interregnum"
Initially, the technical and military superiority of the West spread to the economy with the development of industrial capitalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. According to Bertrand Badie, "the concept of the West, which was born in 1054 as a result of the great schism between the churches of the East and the West (the "great schism" between Orthodoxy and Catholicism), "continued to be rewritten and transformed over time, but at the same time largely lost its attractive power." Finally, among the claims against the North is the rejection of a certain Western "internecine", including organizations such as NATO, which are dominated by Western powers. There is also, according to Badi, a desire to finally gain access to global governance."
But "if the world is being de—westernized, it is primarily in demographic terms, since of the eight billion inhabitants of the planet, only 15% live in Western countries today," says economist Jean-Joseph Boileau. By the end of the 21st century, the African continent will account for 40% of humanity. But, he adds, "the development of local identity and self-affirmation in the countries of the South take precedence over the rejection of the West."
The results of a survey conducted by Ivan Krastev, Timothy Garton Ash and Mark Leonard for the European Council on Foreign Relations, based on data from twenty-one countries (eleven European countries plus the United States, China, Russia, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil and South Korea) allow us to take a closer look at the de-westernization of the world.
The survey definitely shows that Western countries are more pessimistic about their future than Indians, Indonesians and even the Chinese. However, on a global scale, the West retains its appeal: only 5% of citizens of non-Western countries would prefer to live in China if they had the opportunity, compared with 56% who would choose the United States or one of the EU countries. This figure is even higher in Turkey (71%), Brazil (68%), South Africa (65%) and Saudi Arabia (62%).
Political scientist Bruno Tertre also believes that in the face of the challenge to Western leadership, the West still has quite a lot of good things left. In the October issue of Le Grand Continent magazine, he notes that it is not so much the West that is declining as the rest of the world that is gaining strength. We are still far from moving from de-westernization to the formation of a post-Western world.
