CC BY
9УДК 327.2
Баева А.А.
студент факультета журналистики Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова
(Россия, г. Москва)
THE TRANSFORMATION OF WESTERN SOCIETY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MODERN WORLD POLITICS
Аннотация: в данной статье рассматривается трансформация политически-культурного понятия «Запад», его роль в международной политике и влияние на современную политическую ситуацию в мире.
Ключевые слова: США, запад, восток, политика, арабский мир, европоцентризм, войны, международные отношения.
Nowadays our world is very west-centered. If we learn history, it is mostly the history of western countries. If we study world literature or culture, we study western culture. That is why we are sure that "the West" is something very important and powerful. That western society makes a huge contribution in development of humanity. But what actually "the West" means?
The first association with "the West" is well-developed western countries. USA, Britain, Germany - they are all seem to us the most modern countries, with good economy and living standards. In geo-politics they can dictate their own terms. Precisely these states established world's organizations like the United Nations or NATO. And they have a huge impact in these organizations. They have the right to interfere in businesses of other countries, to influence the situation inside other states, and change the situation which they do not like. Also a lot of western states have a lot of resources, which help them to feel independent and to control other countries by
trade. And we never thought why the things are going this way. Why these countries are so important?
This is connected with history and the development of philosophical idea. For a lot of time western society had been established. And at the same time they had been realized their own importance. Europeans were conquering different countries and even continents, inventing new things, discovering the world. All these factors helped them to believe that western civilization is the most powerful civilization. Their progress and success made them feel like they are the center of the world. And even contacts with other civilizations did not dissuade them in their confidence in western civilization.
Nowadays world is very complicated and multicultural for hegemony of only one society. The idea of the West is transforming now, because the West is not the main power in the world anymore. Of course, this process is very hard and long, the West will not lean back so easily. And this is very interesting process to observe.
Brief History of "the West"
In order to answer these questions, we need to look through the history. The western civilization started with the Ancient Greece. Greece culture has become a foundation of the whole European society. The ideas of Aristotle and Socrates were the base for European philosophers, Homer became the classical author and Greek mythology was an inspiration for a lot of great writers. Afterwards was the Roman Empire, which took something from Greece culture and added something new. The culture of the Roman Empire influenced on the formation of the modern western culture even more. It gave future Europeans language and knowledge. As we can see, western society started from a one small country and then expanded. After the fall of the Roman Empire, modern European countries appeared.
In the Middle Ages the establishment of the European countries began. Than the Renaissance and the Enlightenment finished this process. This was period when Europeans started to understand who they are and began to explore the world. Europe
invaded new lands and expanded their domains. The division of the world had begun. By the time when westerns saw other people and cultures, they already had been sure that western civilization is the main in this world. That is why they often did not cooperate with non-western countries, but try to conquer them. Therefore European countries grabbed colonies and started to exploit their population. Europeans took resources of their colonies in order to develop their own economy. That is understandable because in those days realism was one of the main philosophical ideas. And according to Alan Collin in realism "power plays a central role in enabling states to acquire these capabilities".
But the strange thing is: with the Enlightenment came the idea of liberalism and the understanding of human rights. "...liberalism is associated with: strong support for democracy which is considered vital for the legitimacy of a government; strong support for private property and free enterprise - a market economy - at home and abroad; a belief in open relationships among societies - not only in trade and investment but in flows of information and ideas, people, and culture; strong support for international cooperation such as in international organizations; and a strong commitment to human rights based on the importance of the individual". But these rights for a long time were only for Europeans. Population of non-western countries was not human beings for them. In world politics western countries were still operating with realism. That is why such things like slavery, two world wars, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to become real.
Opium wars are a really good example of how Europeans treated eastern civilizations. Before Britons discovered China, it was a thriving country. Chinese invented paper, compass, typography, gunpowder and many other things. They did not need Europeans. But Britain started to trade with China, because British did not have such goods and at the moment could not produce them on their own. After some time they understood, that such trading was very expensive for them. But they could not abandon these products any more. What they had decided to do? British started a war with rich, but not so well-armed China. In order to win, they hooked Chinese on opium.
That made one of the greatest eastern civilization weaker, so Britain could do with them whatever they wanted. Why did they do this? Because they are western. Because they are the most enlightened and developed civilization. "Cliches of Eastern social rigidity and conservatism and Western dynamism had already become firmly entrenched".
But what is interesting, western society sometimes treated each other in similar way. Despite western solidarity, as was said, in global politics were and still are used principles of realism. It means that there is no humanism in international relationships; everything is done in interests of the state, not in interests of human-being. In 20th century this was seen very well. Two world wars showed real face of the western civilization. While politicians were talking about human rights and providing ideas of liberalism in their own countries, they did not consider such attitude to other nations.
The First World War was an attempt of the western countries to divide the world again. The most powerful countries of the Europe started to lose their colonies and likewise its resources and power. Britain had already lost America, and moreover, the USA gained strength. New players appeared, like reunited Germany, which wanted its peace of the world too. "In the broadest terms, realism asks whether a state should choose a competitive or a cooperative strategy" - said Alan Collins. And in those days states chose a competitive strategy - war.
The Second World War was even more impressive. The idea of the West as superior race was fully reflected in Nazi ideology, it reached its apogee. And the whole world saw what can happen when the idea of supremacy is adopted by the whole nation. Those terrible killings could not be accepted by the world community. Nazi criminals were judged and killed. It seemed that after such terrible event the West would finally understand that they were not enlightened, but no better than eastern nations or aborigines, who they consider as a dark or not so well-developed people. But the Cold war started.
In the second half of the 20th century the world became bipolar. If during the Second World War countries had to cooperate with each other in order to beat the Nazi,
afterwards they continued their competitive strategy. Term "the West" changed its meaning. If before the 20th century Europe was the West, after wars America became the main representative of the western society. And now it was in opposition not to the East, but to the communists, in other words, Soviet Union. The idea of the west was shifted. Earlier, it was white man against not white (by race), now it was capitalism against communism (by ideology and by economic system). That is why after the Second World War Japan had become western country, and Russia eastern.
Influence of the idea of the West in the modern world
The begging of the 21st century is American. The USA dictate their terms to the whole world. Of course, this would be impossible without the collapse of the USSR. In the second half of the 20th century, during the Cold war the world was bipolar. But in the 21st century the USA only left. And they, like the only powerful country now can do what they want. Their hegemony started after the 9 th September. This was a terrible attack, but the USA took this event as a way to promote their interests in the Middle East. They cover their actions for fight with the terrorism. But this was actually an expansion.
In 2003 America started a war with Iraq. The main reason of this war was, as America claimed, fighting with terrorism. But this is very controversial point. There were no officially evidences that Iraq was elaborating weapons of mass destruction. This war was not fully approved by global community. But the USA and their allies still decided to start this war. There is an opinion that the USA started this war in order not to fight terrorism, but to have access to Iraq's oil. As a result, a lot of Iraqis died, some important architectural monuments were ruined, and the situation on the Middle East was destabilized. Years latter some politicians, who supported this operation, agreed, that this war was one of the reason why Islamic State has appeared. Western countries started to invade the Middle East, eastern countries developed an opposition to the West.
Why, in modern society, they are able to do it? First of all, because America pretends that does it in the interest of liberalism. Like NATO is fighting for the peace. But in reality this is realism. They do it in their own interests to become more powerful. ".. .states exist in an international system that is characterized by the possibility of war, which drives into military and economic competition, and sometimes into a war itself" - that what realism is actually is. They do not think about peace, only about war.
What is more, America is able to do it because they are the strongest western country now. They believe that they have the right to start a war, because they represent interests of the West. As we see, the idea of the West is very powerful. It has been developing for centuries and now it is very hard for western countries to look at the world from a different position. Western states are sure that their values are the most important. And that is why they try to implement them in eastern countries.
Also democratic America feels more comfortable with other democracies. And a lot of countries in the Middle East have dictatorial regimes. That is why the USA tries to turn them in democracies. But for a long period of time they have been seen the only way to do it - war. Of course, they faced with the resistance. So now America is trying to influence Arabic countries economically. They impose sanctions. As we can see, that does not work very efficient.
Sometimes western countries claim that Islam is a very strict religion and it does not support basic human rights. At some point this is true: Islam is not very tolerant religion. And this western people cannot understand. Because now western society tries to be as much tolerant as they can. And they try to make the whole world tolerant too. From the first sight this is a good idea. Because some people really suffer because of bad treatment in Arabic countries. But what the West forgets is that not so much time ago they themselves were not very tolerant and people suffered too because of it. That is why it cannot be done by force. All we can do is allow non-western countries to develop themselves and wait.
But again, all this wars, which started western states in the Middle East, are usually started not for a good reason. These words about tolerance and human rights likewise
fighting terrorism are just the cover of real reasons. In reality, Middle East countries have a lot of oil and other resources, which western countries have not.
Also western society may feel threatened by Arabic countries. They become more powerful, they have resources and desire to participate in global politics. The East wants the world community to consider their interests as well.
Terrorism is a new phenomenon in the world. Of course, terror was used earlier, but now it becomes massive. There are whole terroristic organizations, which terrified the world. This can be one of the ways which eastern society uses to make a statement. And these tendencies make America and other western countries feel uncomfortable. Their hegemony may regress.
Western countries do not want to be "the bad guys". That is why they try to justify their actions; they have to cover them in order to look good in international community. But in reality they produce drugs in Afghanistan and make money on a poor people. Like Britain did with China.
Today we see a terrible duplicity of the western societies. As was said, they claim that this is liberalism that they want to help people, but in fact it is good old realism. And it is still all about power and resources, about interests of states, but not about ordinary people.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"The Idea of The West", Alistair Bonnett URL: file:///D:/Downloads/The Idea of the West Culture Politics an.pdf "Contemporary Security Studies", Alan Collins
URL:https://books.google.ru/books?id= n7CwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru &source=gbs ge summary r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
