The East is again eclipsing the West, Mahbubani says.

Kishore Mahbubani: Well, we are moving into a completely new era of world history, and I described it in two ways. It is the end of the era of Western domination of world history, but I hasten to add, it is not the end of the West. The West will remain, single strongest civilization for a long, long time to come, but it can no longer dominate the world in the way it has for the last 200 years. The second aspect of this new era of course is the return of Asia, and while the return of Asia seems rather abnormal now. Actually, if you look not at the last 200 years, if you look at the last 2000 years, the two largest economies of the world have consistently been China and India, so if China and India become once again the largest economies as every one predicts in the 21st century, it will clearly be a return to the norm and so we shouldn’t be surprised that it is going to happen.

Recorded on: 2/28/08