Re: monocentric - polycentric - reorient

Wed, 11 Mar 1998 13:00:07 -0500 (EST)
L. China Terrell (latasha@jhu.edu)

under interpretation (b) (see below), why cannot we also expect another
world war/hegemonic power struggle as emerging centres strive to achieve
legitimacy and compete with the sole existing centre (the west)?

i imagine that the quests of competing centres to achieve legitimacy,
especially in the eyes of the west, would certainly be a difficult one.
would not the west attempt to undermine any opposition that threatens the
status quo in order to save the supremacy of its own hegemony?

it seems that the assumption that a peaceful change would occur
toward a polycentric world is based on the premise that political leaders
are 'rational' individuals. consequently, western political leaders,
realizing they could lose more through violent resistance to change than
they could if they were to negotiate peacefully with emerging centres, are
willing to bequeath sacrificially areas unders their own domination in
order to allow for the peaceful emergence of competing centres.

i argue that political leaders are not necessarily rational people
(although they can appear to be for quite some time) and that not every
political leader in the west will take kindly to the shift toward a
polycentric world. it is easy to think that an 'aminian' shift would be
more peaceful than a 'frankian' shift because the rapid demise of the
emerging asian centre makes us in the west feel comfortable that it shall
always be 'we' who will agree to share our power and not 'they' who will
take it from us...if 'they' choose to so attempt.

chinadoll.

On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Gernot Kohler wrote:
>
> A reading of Professor Frank's working paper "ReOrient..." (see wsn
> archive) suggests to my mind that his conceptual model of the world
> entails a single center; the world is a *monocentric* world. This single
> center moves around the world as historical time progresses. (Similar to
> the old Hegelian idea that the "Weltgeist" moves from place to place
> throughout history.)
>
> A *polycentric* concept of the world is advocated, for the future, by
> Professor Amin.
>
> This difference of conceptualization raises an interesting question with
> respect to the interpretation of current world developments, namely:
>
> Are present shifts in the world system
>
> (a) Frankian -- i.e., *one* global center shifting from the "West" to the
> "Orient" (where it used to be some time prior)? or,
>
> (b) Aminian -- i.e., a world with one global center ("West") is evolving
> into a world with several centers ("polycentric")?
>
> Under interpretation (a) one could, perhaps, expect another hegemonic
> power struggle and world war within the next 50 years. Under
> interpretation (b) one could, perhaps, expect a more peaceful evolution
> of the world system.
>
> Kind regards,
> --GK
>
>

________________________________________
L. China Y. Terrell
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