Atul Aneja (India) speech at the Global Conference on Multipolarity

Atul Aneja (India) speech at the Global Conference on Multipolarity

Atul Aneja (India) –  journalist and writer. The Strategic Affairs Editor at The Hindu newspaper.

Well, thank you so much for the organizers.

Okay, first of all, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak on this topic, which is of exceptional importance to entire humanity. We are aware that the multipolar world has arrived. And that's the reality. And this multipolar world is essentially made of what has been stated by Professor Dugin, in fact, by Samuel Huntington earlier that this is a multipolar world comprising essentially of what can be called civilizational states. That would include India, that will include China that will include Russia, including United States, Iraq, Iran, I mean, these are civilized, not ordinary states, but with a very deep and profound history, and which have developed along with their own genius, and with their own understanding of the world.

And, therefore the thoughts and ideas extremely deep rooted, much before the Westphalian world order emerged. And this is a time when these civilization states along with others, are coming into their own. We find that the unipolar world which emerged with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has completely given way to a number of poles which have developed economically, you can see the emerging economies among them, which have acquired military capacity, which have much more global influence now than it was the case around the time of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So, while the multipolar world is with us right now, the problem really is, really is what are the rules? What will be a rules-based order which will go on in a multipolar world? I think that's where the real challenge arises. And among the poles, for example, there is a need for extensive dialogue. You can see in the case of let's say, the Indian civilization and the Chinese. Each of these two civilization states have their own geo cultural space. If you take in the case of China, one can see that from China eastwards right up to the Korean peninsula, it is essentially a Confucian world. But if you go south and come towards Southeast Asia, you see a very strong imprint, cultural imprint of the Indian civilization of influence of Hinduism, influence of Buddhism, which is strong and palpable, even Islam, the Sufism, that Islam is developed in South Asia, one can see it in Malaysia and can see it in Indonesia.

So, the point is that if you want to have a rules-based multipolar system, the poles have to accept each other's geo cultural space. And there's a need for a dialogue between them, that the new multipolar world if it has to be a non-hegemonized world, that has to accept the geo cultural space of each of the poles. And frankly, when once you accept the geo cultural space, as an example, I illustrate with China and India, then there is a need also to accept a geostrategic space which sort of concurs and rides with the geo cultural space.

And, therefore, there needs to be a very strong dialogue between the major strong poles which have arrived. To arrive at the rules and an understanding with each other so that the multipolar world also doesn't collide with each other and ends up tragically the way the unipolar world ended. So, these are the some of the challenges before us, I think, one of the arenas where the dialogue will finally have to get translated is in the United Nations composition. You cannot have the World War II architecture after 1945 to define the multipolar world order.

So, I think we need, we would require a much bigger debate, and frankly, a collapse in the resuscitation of a new global institutional architecture. So, the challenges are there, the objective reality of a multipolar reality is there but to make it a better world, a more beautiful world and a more representative world, I think there's a lot of heavy lifting, which is required, and the time for intense dialogue among the poles would be the need of that. I'll stop here and thank you so much for your attention.

Atul Aneja (India) speech at the Global Conference on Multipolarity

Atul Aneja (India) –  journalist and writer. The Strategic Affairs Editor at The Hindu newspaper.

Well, thank you so much for the organizers.

Okay, first of all, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak on this topic, which is of exceptional importance to entire humanity. We are aware that the multipolar world has arrived. And that's the reality. And this multipolar world is essentially made of what has been stated by Professor Dugin, in fact, by Samuel Huntington earlier that this is a multipolar world comprising essentially of what can be called civilizational states. That would include India, that will include China that will include Russia, including United States, Iraq, Iran, I mean, these are civilized, not ordinary states, but with a very deep and profound history, and which have developed along with their own genius, and with their own understanding of the world.

And, therefore the thoughts and ideas extremely deep rooted, much before the Westphalian world order emerged. And this is a time when these civilization states along with others, are coming into their own. We find that the unipolar world which emerged with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has completely given way to a number of poles which have developed economically, you can see the emerging economies among them, which have acquired military capacity, which have much more global influence now than it was the case around the time of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So, while the multipolar world is with us right now, the problem really is, really is what are the rules? What will be a rules-based order which will go on in a multipolar world? I think that's where the real challenge arises. And among the poles, for example, there is a need for extensive dialogue. You can see in the case of let's say, the Indian civilization and the Chinese. Each of these two civilization states have their own geo cultural space. If you take in the case of China, one can see that from China eastwards right up to the Korean peninsula, it is essentially a Confucian world. But if you go south and come towards Southeast Asia, you see a very strong imprint, cultural imprint of the Indian civilization of influence of Hinduism, influence of Buddhism, which is strong and palpable, even Islam, the Sufism, that Islam is developed in South Asia, one can see it in Malaysia and can see it in Indonesia.

So, the point is that if you want to have a rules-based multipolar system, the poles have to accept each other's geo cultural space. And there's a need for a dialogue between them, that the new multipolar world if it has to be a non-hegemonized world, that has to accept the geo cultural space of each of the poles. And frankly, when once you accept the geo cultural space, as an example, I illustrate with China and India, then there is a need also to accept a geostrategic space which sort of concurs and rides with the geo cultural space.

And, therefore, there needs to be a very strong dialogue between the major strong poles which have arrived. To arrive at the rules and an understanding with each other so that the multipolar world also doesn't collide with each other and ends up tragically the way the unipolar world ended. So, these are the some of the challenges before us, I think, one of the arenas where the dialogue will finally have to get translated is in the United Nations composition. You cannot have the World War II architecture after 1945 to define the multipolar world order.

So, I think we need, we would require a much bigger debate, and frankly, a collapse in the resuscitation of a new global institutional architecture. So, the challenges are there, the objective reality of a multipolar reality is there but to make it a better world, a more beautiful world and a more representative world, I think there's a lot of heavy lifting, which is required, and the time for intense dialogue among the poles would be the need of that. I'll stop here and thank you so much for your attention.