"A Heteropolar World, the Rise of China, and a New Cold War Mark the Changing World Order", Dr Ram Madhav, President India Foundation

OP Jindal University
New Delhi [India], March 12: A heteropolar world, the rise of China, and a new Cold War mark the changing world order today. The decline of international institutions like the UN, falling usage of the dollar as a global currency, human displacement due to climate change and influence of global tech companies will define the new world order in this century," said Dr Ram Madhav, President of the India Foundation on the occasion of 'Capital Talks, A Thought Leadership Series', which began with the lecture titled India & The World - A Perspective from Bharat, organised by the Jindal India Institute of O.P. Jindal Global University.
"Today, we notice that there is a perceptible decline in the influence of the Western powers. The West will remain a very powerful bloc. Especially countries like America will remain technological leaders, economic leaders in the world. But in the new world which is now shaping up, you will probably not see any more unipolarity. Then there is the rise of China. A perceptible rise of China despite certain contemporary challenges it is facing in terms of its economic stagnation etc. is an important development in this century. It has become almost as big an economy as America today in terms of GDP figures. Today, there are a growing number of flashpoints in the world indicating a 'new Cold War' like situation which countries don't admit for tactical reasons. Leaders of smaller countries feel this pressure to take sides and that itself indicates that there is a growing Cold War-like situation. Then we need to see the rise of a few middle powers. Multiple independent powers at the middle level are growing. You know, when I say middle powers, I'm not just talking about countries alone. There are a number of minilaterals emerging. They're strong groups. What we are seeing include Shanghai Cooperation Organization, EU or ASEAN. These small groups of countries are trying to emerge as important power blocks in the world."
Welcoming Dr Ram Madhav to the inaugural lecture under the Capital Talk Series organized by JGU, Dr C Raj Kumar, the Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University, spoke about the phenomenal growth of JGU in a span on 15 years and introduced the keynote speaker to an audience comprising diplomats, intellectuals, business professionals and students. Dr Raj Kumar described Dr Ram Madhav as "widely regarded for his contributions in the field of strategic thinking, political philosophy and India's foreign policy. He has been the curator of major annual global and national multilateral initiatives like the Indian Ocean Conference, the Dharma-Dhamma Conference, ASEAN-India Youth Summit and Counter Terrorism Conference. Most recently, Dr Madhav has been instrumental in ideating the Religon-20 Forum (R20) as part of G20 and his most recent book "Partitioned Freedom" explores the untold history of India's partition in 1947 and the birth of Pakistan," he said.
Dr Ram Madhav further elucidated that today, there is a decline of global multilateral institutions, which were created after the Second World War. The United Nations is far less influential. And from India's point of view, we have made it very clear that unless important reforms are effected to the institutions, they will continue to become less important in the world. On the other hand, big tech corporations are emerging as major power players in the world. "An Elon Musk can decide many things in this world beyond the sovereignty of nations. Google or Facebook and Apple can play an important role in shaping many things in the world. So, beyond sovereign nation-states, these poles are also rising. Multinational corporations, global big tech companies, they are emerging to be highly influential. Global NGOs like Rockefeller Foundation are very powerful. We now have multinational terrorist organizations which are dictating terms of how you fight. So many such forces are rising, especially religious groups which are emerging as important," Dr Madhav said.
"We are living in a heteropolar reality. We have now have entered into a very major tech era. This is a very frontier type of tech era defined by Artificial Intelligence. AI is going to be a challenge to every country. It is a technology by everyone today because we are entering into an era of redundant humans, intelligent machines. Climate change is a much talked about issue. This climate change will lead to displacement of 1.2 billion people in next 10 years. Imagine the pressure that it is going to cause especially to countries in Europe, because there will be displacement in Africa and also mass displacement in many island nations in the world. So it is going to cause major human suffering and that will lead to so many consequences for which we are to be prepared. At the same time, there is the decreasing influence of the American dollar and dollar-based trading which has come down to 58%. So we are entering into a multi-currency system today. And lastly, very interestingly, there is a return of nationalism and strong national identities in different parts of the world. It's a very geopolitical reality."
The inaugural Capital Talks Lecture concluded with a detailed discussion and interaction with Dr Ram Madhav, involving Dr Sreeram Chaulia, Director General of the Jindal India Institute; Dr Mohan Kumar, Professor & Dean of the Office of International Affairs & Global Initiatives, and Ms. Ambreen Khan, Adjunct Professor of Practice & Director Media Outreach and Special Initiatives, O.P. Jindal Global University. The discussion and audience interaction covered subjects like developing a discourse on positive nationalism, the need for economic stability, investing in the Indian economy for a double digit GDP growth, and the strength of culture and India as a civilisational state.
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