What is left of the West?

Section: Political Books

Number of pages: 127 pages

Will the West fade? This question has been asked many times in the past and its echoes continue to reverberate, made more urgent by two factors that may constitute a motive for the end of the era of Western superiority and hegemony: the West’s contradictions and internal crises on the one hand, and the emergence of “emerging” powers on the global stage on the other hand, in addition to the illusion of an alleged “Islamic threat” on the third hand. Before asking the question “What remains of the West?” we must clarify what we mean by the West: When was it born? Where? And on what basis? Did it arise in Athens with the emergence of the ideas of citizenship and freedom under the law, science and school, or in Rome with the invention of Roman law and the first features of individualism, or in Jerusalem with the first advent of evangelical morality and eschatology, or in the Middle Ages with the Gregorian Reformation, or did its birth coincide with the birth of universities, the expansion of cities and the Industrial Revolution? And did the West take shape with the advent of liberal democracies and the invention of modern democratic and liberal institutions?