February 20, 2008
In an op-ed in The Age Martin Jacques argues that a global power shift is in the making, as the growing economic crisis takes hold:
This crisis, however, threatens to be even more fundamental. While the 1973 gyrations were the result of a temporary shift of power from the industrial world to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the underlying cause this time is permanent and far-reaching — a fundamental shift in power from the developed world to the developing world — above all China and India. There has not been anything like this since the inception of the West as an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century.
This heralds a major reduction in the global economic and political influence of the US and that the political consequences of this shift will be enormous.
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