Development Diplomacy and Soft Power
NEW YORK “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,” said President Xi Jinping, quoting Charles Dickens’ famous line to open his speech at the 2017 World Economic Forum. “Today,” Xi continued, “we also live in a world of contradictions.” On one hand, “growing material wealth and advances in science and technology” have enabled unprecedented rates of development. On the other hand, “frequent regional conflicts, global challenges like terrorism and refugees, as well as poverty, unemployment, and a widening income gap” are generating deep uncertainty.
Xi then posed a potent moncler outlet online question: “What has gone wrong with the world?”
Perhaps the answer lies with the very technology that Xi regards as the buy moncler jackets key to China’s rise to high income status. Specifically, it may be that we have reached a turning point in the march of technological progress one that we are navigating very badly.
Technology has been shaping and reshaping our lives ever since early human beings discovered how to make tools from stone. It is only natural for such a long moncler sale outlet process to include moments when technological change generates unprecedented challenges.
moncler outlet One such turning point was the Industrial Revolution. In mid eighteenth century Britain, the revolution’s birthplace, progress entailed considerable adversity. Some workers toiled 12 14 hours per day, yet inequality surged. And the incidence of child labor rose beyond the levels seen in some of the poorest Sub Saharan African economies today. moncler outlet
moncler outlet online But Europe rose to the occasion. Groundbreaking research in economics was carried out by the likes of Adam Smith and Antoine Cournot, leading to novel interventions like progressive income tax, as well as new labor laws and regulations. As a result, the Industrial Revolution accelerated economic development and human welfare. moncler outlet online
moncler jacket sale Human development has seen other “industrial revolutions,” including the one that is currently unfolding. This so called Fourth Industrial Revolution is centered on advances in digital technology, including “labor linking technologies” (which enable workers across continents to work together in real time) and, more recently, artificial intelligence and robotics. moncler jacket sale
These advances have enabled economic globalization, which, like the Industrial Revolution https://www.monclerdownjacket.biz , has brought unprecedented progress, as Xi acknowledged, while generating new challenges, including rising inequality and worker vulnerability. But instead of managing those challenges, as Europe did in the nineteenth century, much of the world is succumbing to political polarization, rising nationalism, and a toxic blame game. Most notably, the United States under President Donald Trump has initiated what is rapidly escalating into a tit for tat trade war one that will be devastating for the entire world, but especially for the US itself.
cheap moncler coats What such behavior fails to take into account is that globalization is, fundamentally, a natural phenomenon. It is the result of billions of individuals going about their daily activities, making decisions based on the possibilities available to them. Arguing against globalization is as constructive as blaming gravity cheap moncler for a building’s collapse. As Xi pointed out in his WEF speech, it “is a natural outcome of scientific and technological progress, not something created by any individuals or any countries.” cheap moncler coats
In the case of Trump’s trade war, US policy also reflects a misunderstanding one that economists have repeatedly pointed out about bilateral trade deficits. According to Trump, a trade deficit is essentially a loss, and the countries with moncler sale surpluses vis vis the US, such as Mexico or China, are behaving in unfair and exploitative ways. Thus, they should be made to pay.
moncler outlet jackets To understand the fallacy, consider your interaction with the neighborhood grocery store. At the end of each year, you run up a large “trade deficit” vis vis the store, cheap moncler outlet because the store sells goods to you moncler outlet , whereas you do not sell anything to the store. To claim that China “owes” the US for its trade bilateral trade surplus would be like saying that your local grocery store owes you for the money you spent there during the last year. In fact, you were not cheated, just as your employer was not cheated by the bilateral deficit it runs with you. Rather, you made mutually beneficial transactions based on your needs. moncler outlet jackets
cheap moncler The modern economy depends on bilateral trade deficits; it would collapse without them. In an age of advanced technologies and accelerating specialization, attempting to manufacture everything domestically or bilaterally would be prohibitively costly. cheap moncler
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cheap moncler outlet For now, the US seems committed to its demands that its partners pay up. The more likely scenario, however, is that economies like Canada, Europe, and Mexico will seek to offset the impact of Trump’s tariffs by deepening their ties with China an obvious win for America’s main global competitor. Meanwhile, US cheap moncler coats corporations will probably move production elsewhere to avoid retaliatory tariffs, as some such as Harley Davidson have already threatened to moncler outlet store do. cheap moncler outlet
moncler factory outlet There is no denying that the technological turning point at which we find ourselves has caused strain for all countries. But instead of blaming one another for the challenges generated by technological progress an approach that will only bring about the worst of times we should work together to address them. Any country that refuses to do so will create strain for all and end up condemning itself to being left behind. moncler factory outlet
cheap moncler jackets sale COMMENT Japan, unknown to many, is a hybrid. It has an imperial system steeped in ancient Japanese culture and Shinto religion. But it also has a Whitehall parliamentary system, and a bureaucracy that recruits on the basis monlcer down jackets of what top universities like University of Tokyo, Waseda University and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies can produce. The latter is not unlike the practice of France that tends to pick its best elites from ENA (or Ecole Nationale Administration), indeed, also Sciences Po. cheap moncler jackets sale
moncler outlet store More importantly, Japan has a security alliance with the United States, that is predisposed to relying on the nuclear deterrent provided by Washington DC, even though Japan purportedly cannot house, base and allow any nuclear warships moncler outlet to traverse through its ports, according to the doctrine once laid down by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. moncler outlet store
moncler sale outlet Yale historian,Paul Kennedy. who wrote the book ‘The Rise and Fall of Great Powers’ in 1988, referred to Japanese foreign policy as Neither East nor West, Japan is the best only that the so called definition of the in Japan involves a high degree of adaptation, adjustment and innovation to suit Japan. moncler sale outlet
By anecdotes, none of the anime characters, for example, are truly Western. Not even Eastern. But the end product is a Japanese anime that is imbued with huge eyes, sharp features, and accentuated shapes, all of which have been innovated to achieve that distinctive flavour that only anime fans can associate with.
moncler outlet sale But even as Malaysia Look East, what can Japan learn from Malaysia cheap moncler sale though? It is high time that Tokyo looks at Malaysia (anew) for three specific reasons. moncler outlet sale
First, at a fertility rate of 1.34 according to the UN Population research, as reported in NHK, Japan is greying and shrinking in future. Japan is growing older, and in human demography, smaller. Second, Japan has a serious security problem viz a viz North Korea and China. Both countries may want to trade with Japan, even ultimately gain from it, but they are not in a position to let Japan off lightly on historical issues, especially Japan previous colonisation of them.
moncler outlet uk Thirdly, the aging of moncler mens jackets Japanese society has repercussion in terms of its security outlook and posture too, even democracy. As the people become older, they demand Japan be a responsible power, too, one that can stand up on consistent Japanese principles of honour, dignity and values, all of which play into the hands of the right wing political elements who may argue that ancient Japanese values are strongest in right wing parties. If this is the trajectory, Japanese politics would turn right even before it can become centrist, let alone leftist in future. moncler outlet uk
But, regardless of the permutations above, Japan can learn from Malaysia in terms of our democratic experimentation and consolidation too. At the ripe old age of 93 in a couple of weeks Dr Mahathir Mohamad has shown that is a number one can be a democrat if one is committed to it. Indeed, Prime Minister in Waiting Anwar Ibrahim, too, is already 71.
In his speech in Istanbul on June 19, Anwar explains that he is not young too. But he is vested his life into promoting and protecting democracy by virtue of the political imprisonment that he had gone through, causing him to lose 10.5 years of his life in prison. In the outlook of Mahathir and Anwar, age is not a factor in reeling back from pursuing peace, freedom and democracy, which are lessons that the whole of Japan should be learning from Malaysia. Old is gold.
moncler sale More importantly, while close to four million Malaysian youths did not register to vote in the 14th General Election, the total voter turnout was 82 percent, just four percent less than 2013. The ones who voted out the kleptocratic excesses of the government of Najib Razak were the youth too. In fact, 75 percent of the membership of Bersatu, a party led by Mahathir, is less than 35 years of age. moncler sale
Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, a top youth leader of Bersatu, even gave up his Oxford graduate scholarship twice to fight for a better Malaysia. One of Mahathir top strategists, moncler outlet sale Dr. Rais Hussin, is barely 50. But he fought against all odds to defend the Malaysian democracy, and recruited the likes of Dr. Maszlee Malik, his peer in International Islamic University, to be the education minister.
Japan can also learn from Malaysia in terms of the women participation. Prior to May 9, which was the day of the electoral upset, seven out of 10 female voters in Malaysia were usually pro establishment.
But on the day of the election, the women refused to go with the systemic abuses and flagrant corruption of Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor). Many rooted for Mahathir and Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the wife of Anwar Ibrahim. Wan Azizah, who is an eye specialist is now the deputy prime minister. Words have it that the speaker or the deputy speaker of the parliament could be Hannah Yeoh, again, another woman.
Fourthly, the Malaysian election is establishing the norm to help China understand that agreements, and contracts, the likes of which have been seen not only in Malaysia, but throughout the international trading system spanning from Asia to Latin America.