Glimpses of the Multipolar World, 9 September 2023
G20. Guterres. West’s Last Waltz. Nobel Ernaux. Huawei Chip. Cultural Refugees. Lalla.
The Big Story. The G20 Falls to Earth.
Governing the Multipolar World. Guterres on UN Reform.
Using History Mindfully. Russian Ark and the West’s Last Waltz.
Fragments of the Burning Archive. Nobel Prize and Annie Ernaux.
What surprised me most. Chinese law and Huawei’s chip.
Gratitudes and Works-in-Progress. Refuges of Culture in our Digital Lives.
Reading and Closing Verse. Pushkin and Lalla.
How you can support The Burning Archive.
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1. The Big Story: The G20 Falls to Earth.
The major story of this week is the G20 Summit (9-10 September, New Delhi), and what it portends for the reassembly of the world’s institutions of power, diplomatic dialogue and cultural exchange.
As I write this story, the final results of the summit are not yet known. I will update the story with my reflections on the outcome of the summit on Monday on my author website (theburningarchive.com), and might even have a stab at an article for more general publication.
India has invested enormous effort into its leadership of the G20 this year. It convened the “Voice of the Global South” conference so that India could open the G20 club to other voices. It deployed its skilled diplomats to pursue practical goals, including more inclusive development and reform of international institutions. It brought many preparatory events of the Summit (Ministerial and officials meetings on economics, foreign policy, sustainable development, culture and more) to many parts of India. This “People’s G20” echoed the theme of the “Voice of the Global South”. It engaged the Indian public in a vision of India on the world stage, and it offered thousands of officials from around the world a new experience of a thriving, more assertive Bharat.
It may also have shined the prestige of Prime Minister Modi ahead of the 2024 elections. During this week Narendra Modi published an opinion piece that set out his assessment of how well India has accomplished its vision for its G20 Presidency,
“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” — these two words capture a deep philosophy. The phrase means “the world is one family”. This is an all-embracing outlook that encourages us to progress as one universal family, transcending borders, languages, and ideologies. During India’s G20 Presidency, this has translated into a call for human-centric progress. As One Earth, we are coming together to nurture our planet. As One Family, we support each other in the pursuit of growth. And we move together towards a shared future — One Future — which is an undeniable truth in these interconnected times.
He concluded his assessment by saying
Our G20 Presidency strives to bridge divides, dismantle barriers, and sow seeds of collaboration that nourish a world where unity prevails over discord, where shared destiny eclipses isolation. As the G20 President, we had pledged to make the global table larger, ensuring that every voice is heard and every country contributes. I am positive that we have matched our pledge with actions and outcomes.
India has matched its pledge, but have all the countries of the G20, especially its privileged G7 members, reciprocated? There have been many Ministerial meetings, decisions, communiques and working documents produced over the year to justify Modi’s view. All these documents may seem tedious waffle to an outsider, but as a former insider government official I see these rites of dialogue and diplomacy as important. They are the rivers down which delicate barks of cultural exchange sail.
But they also express the dilemmas for the effectiveness of the G20 as an institution. The G20 has a patchy record over its brief life. It is not the UN, and is not a narrow, self-interested bloc like the G7. Tensions emerge, but have no real way to be resolved. There is an ever-present danger, especially with the verge to virtual reality in contemporary ‘democratic’ politics, that the G20 fails to house the One World family in the domestic routines of serious work and cultural exchange. There is a a growing risk that it becomes yet another theatrical forum for poorly performed political stunts.
For example, on August 26 2023, the G20 Culture Minister's Meeting produced the “Outcome Document and Chair's Summary” that agreed on a set of principles on culture and the heritage of the multipolar world, always a major concern here at the Burning Archive. This document stated strong support for “an open and inclusive dialogue on the return and restitution of cultural property.” These principles might open a gate for progress to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond or the Greek marble artefacts stolen by one of the many Lord Elgins. The statement also stressed the importance of culture “building on a broad historical perspective that renews relationships between countries, while also enabling alternate dispute resolution mechanisms,” in ways this minor retired government official might endorse. Yet Western diplomats also clearly ground down other countries to insert text into the statement on “geopolitical issues”, in order to stage a protest in support of Ukraine, that country whose leaders and zealots ban Russian language, dehumanise Russians as ‘orcs’ and ‘vampires’, and tear down statues of Pushkin and Catherine II, whose Russian Ark of the Hermitage Museum has done more for the heritage of the world than any Cultural Ministers’ meeting.
This text in two paragraphs demonstrates the difficulty of achieving India’s vision of the G20 enacting the ancient Vedic principle of ‘one world, one family’. The text suggests the Culture Ministers meeting saw the rich uncles and aunties of the world family insist the world is flat and to be governed by their unwritten rules alone. Paragraph 15 stated
The war in Ukraine has further adversely impacted the global economy. There was a discussion on the issue. We reiterated our national positions as expressed in other fora, including the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, which, in Resolution No. ES-11/1 dated 2 March 2022, as adopted by majority vote (141 votes for, 5 against, 35 abstentions, 12 absent) deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine. Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy – constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks. There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions. Recognizing that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy.
The footnotes to this paragraph note Russia and China’s rejection of this statement, and China’s view that the G20 Culture Minister’s Meeting is not the place to discuss geopolitical and security concerns. Then paragraph 15 stated the broad Indian and Global South position on the war.
It is essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system that safeguard peace and stability. This includes defending all the Purposes and Principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and adhering to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and infrastructure in armed conflicts. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today's era must not be of war.
The last sentence reiterated the statement by Narendra Modi to Vladimir Putin that has been interpreted variously from many perspectives. If only it were realised. As Spengler said, “Peace is desire. War is fact.” The question to be assessed over the weekend may be whether PM’s Modi deep, sincere and patient desire for peace can overcome the United States of America’s addiction to war and coercive diplomacy.
The early signs during the week before the summit have not been good. It was marked by the disappointing news that the leaders of two partner superpowers, Russia and China, will not attend the G20 summit. In particular, Xi Jinping’s non-attendance may seem disappointing. It has been explained by some Western commentators as reflecting tensions between China and India. Others see it not a snub to India, but a refusal to be bullied, berated and broken by that Biden in a China Shop, the USA. The West has over-done its virtual reality theatre at the diplomatic summits of the world. The real leaders of the emerging multipolar world have abandoned the pantomime, and begun to focus instead on the patient rebuilding of multilateralism in a world that is larger than dreamt of by a diminished ex-Captain America.
M.K. Bhadrakumar did publish this excellent preview of the summit, “Last Waltz in a World Torn Apart”. He noted how American boorishness, impunity and exceptionalism has wrecked the G20, and broken the hall of mirrors that are the delicate illusions of multilateral institutions.
The point is, all this while, Washington has also been incessantly taunting and provoking Beijing with belligerence and through calculated means to weaken China’s economy and incite Taiwan and the ASEAN countries to line up as the US’ Indo-Pacific allies, apart from vilifying China. Both Putin and Xi Jinping have learnt the hard way that Biden is a past-master in doublespeak, saying one thing behind closed doors and acting entirely to the contrary, often being rude and offensive at a personal level in unprecedented display of boorish public diplomacy.
There was a remarkable incident in such boorishness when the American Department of State issued a misleading statement of the Indonesian Government’s views which its Foreign Minister soon repudiated. If there was an international rules based order, the courts would surely have sent the USA to jail years ago for misleading and deceptive conduct. In any case, M.K. Bhadrakumar concluded
The strong likelihood is that the forthcoming Delhi event this weekend may turn out to be the last waltz of its kind between the cowboys of the Western world and the increasingly restless Global South. The revival of the anti-colonial struggle in Africa is ominous. Quite obviously, Russia and China are putting their eggs in the BRICS basket.
It seems that following India’s ascent to the moon at the BRICS Summit, the G20, Western diplomacy and American hegemony have become stranded in the wayward flashy spacecraft that set up as an alternative to the UN. Like Major Tom, they are lost in space, sitting in their tin can, far above the world, never to return to our plural reality. While the West floats away, its faulty G20 spaceship has fallen to earth; to this one and only earth on which we all dwell together.
2. Governing the unruly multipolar world: Guterres on UN Reform
There have been some thoughtful reflections on governing the multipolar world over the last couple of weeks that have contributed to my thinking about how to make sense of this unruly reality.
There was an excellent piece by Fyodor Lukyanov that questioned how robust the concept of the multipolar world is. He highlighted that power and cultural exchanges occur not just at the poles, but throughout the networks of the world. The world has many leagues of power and many dimensions of change. His article contributes to a more sophisticated understanding of the world.
At the BRICS summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made some remarks to govern our unruly multipolar world. They have not been widely reported, and represent more of a plea than a practical proposal. Here is the key excerpt from the speech.
We are moving towards a multipolar world, and that is a positive thing. But multipolarity in itself is not enough to guarantee a peaceful or just global community. To be a factor of peace, equity, and justice in international relations, multipolarity must be supported by strong and effective multilateral institutions. Look no further than the situation in Europe at the dawn of the last century. Europe was multipolar – but it lacked strong multilateral mechanisms. The result was World War I.
As the global community moves towards multipolarity, we desperately need – and I have been vigorously advocating for – a strengthened and reformed multilateral architecture based on the UN Charter and international law. Today’s global governance structures reflect yesterday’s world. They were largely created in the aftermath of World War II when many African countries were still ruled by colonial powers and were not even at the table. This is particularly true of the Security Council of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. For multilateral institutions to remain truly universal, they must reform to reflect today’s power and economic realities, and not the power and economic realities of the post Second World War .
In the absence of such reform –– fragmentation is inevitable. We cannot afford a world with a divided global economy and financial system; with diverging strategies on technology including artificial intelligence; and with conflicting security frameworks. The IMF estimates that such a fracture could cost 7 percent of global GDP – a cost that would be disproportionately borne by low-income countries, mainly in Africa. And so I have come to Johannesburg with a simple message: in a fracturing world with overwhelming crises, there is simply no alternative to cooperation.
We must urgently restore trust and reinvigorate multilateralism for the 21st century. This requires the courage to compromise in the reforms that are necessary for the common good. It requires full respect for the UN Charter, international law, universal values, and all human rights – social, cultural, economic, civil, and political. And it requires much greater solidarity. Of course, none of this is easy. But it is essential.
Not easy, but essential. That is certainly true. Mr Guterres has had difficulty in charting multilateral paths from the Western camp to which he belongs. However, at least, he appears to try.
I noted in an earlier Glimpse of the Multipolar World that the BRICS Summit Johannesburg II Declaration expressed a determination to reform the institutions of multilateral governance, including the UN, WTO and IMF. Reform of the UN Security Council has been debated for decades, as I discussed in this podcast commenting on India’s campaign to reform the membership and processes of the UN Security Council. American resolve to maintain its unipolar dominance has blocked effective reforms and reinvigorated multilateralism for decades.
Now with signs of the G20’s disintegration, the pressure to reform the UN Security Council will increase. Where else will all the major superpowers and major states convene to resolve their differences through dialogue and diplomacy? Let us hope responsible statecraft can persuade America to relinquish its dream of a flat Netflix world; but I fear only defeat in a war - kinetic, economic, cultural and diplomatic - will humble American elites sufficiently for them to sit with their peers in the world, rather than grandstand in the virtual reality studios of their empire.
3. Using history to live mindfully in the present: Russian Ark and the West’s Last Waltz.
The great Russian film, Russian Ark, is a deep meditation on the treasures of culture and the tragedies of history. It is famously filmed in a single continuous shot in the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg. It travels in time, fantasies and dreams through Russian history and culture. I thought of it this week after reading M.K. Bhadrakumar’s article on the West’s last waltz in a fragmenting world. The near to final scenes of the film show the exit from the grand ballrooms of the flowers of Russian society and culture of the imperial and silver ages. As they descend the beautiful marble staircase of the Hermitage, the viewer knows the catastrophes that will soon consume them. World War. Civil War. Revolution. Social Rebellion. Cultural Destruction. Oppressive Regimes. Repressive Ideas.
I thought of the film this week while reflecting on how the G20 and Western leaders have fallen to earth. The new aristocracy of the West has danced its last waltz, and left the grand ballroom of its virtual palace. They are slowly descending a star-spangled, but rather tasteless, staircase to the catastrophe of an exceptional empire. I am not sure, however, that 100 years from now people will make a film, American Ark, about the grandees of this grotesque republic.
4. Fragments of the Burning Archive: Nobel Prize and Annie Ernaux.
On the podcast this week I started a mini-series on the Nobel Prize for Literature. There will be episodes in all in the lead-up to the announcement of the prize on 5 October. Covering the Nobel Prizes, has become a small mini-tradition for the Burning Archive podcast. I did an episode (21) in 2021 and two episodes (69 and 70) in 2022. The episodes focussed on the Literature and Peace Prizes but in 2022 looked at the others.
However, this year I am going to focus on the Nobel Prize for Literature, and not cover the other awards. I may, however, do an episode on the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, depending on the quality of the announcement. Unfortunately, I have come to think that the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded by the Norwegian political elite not the Swedish academy, has, in effect, become the NATO ‘Peace’ prize. Even members of the Nobel family believe this prize has betrayed its purpose.
However, back to the Literature Prize and my latest episode. It covers the history of the Nobel Prize for Literature, some of my favourite winners, some of the famous favourites who never received the prize, and some of the controversies of this prize that has never been as pure as the driven snow of Sweden.
I also cover in this episode last year’s winner, French writer, Annie Ernaux. I really enjoyed The Years. Here is a fragment from her acceptance speech, the Nobel Lecture, which you can also watch in full here.
Where to begin? I have asked myself this question dozens of times, gazing at a blank page. As if I needed to find the one, the only sentence that would give me entry into the writing of the book and remove all doubts in one fell swoop – a sort of key. Today, as I confront a situation which, the initial stupor having passed – ‘is it really me this is happening to?’ – my imagination represents in a way that instils a growing terror, I am overwhelmed by the same necessity. Finding the sentence that will give me the freedom and the firmness to speak without trembling in this place to which you have invited me this evening.
To find that sentence, I don’t have to look very far. It instantly appears. In all its clarity and violence. Lapidary. Irrefutable. Written in my diary sixty years ago. ‘I will write to avenge my people, j’écrirai pour venger ma race’. It echoed Rimbaud’s cry: ‘I am of an inferior race for all eternity.’ I was twenty-two, studying literature in a provincial faculty with the daughters and sons of the local bourgeoisie, for the most part. I proudly and naively believed that writing books, becoming a writer, as the last in a line of landless labourers, factory workers and shopkeepers, people despised for their manners, their accent, their lack of education, would be enough to redress the social injustice linked to social class at birth. That an individual victory could erase centuries of domination and poverty, an illusion that school had already fostered in me by dint of my academic success. How could my personal achievement have redeemed any of the humiliations and offences suffered? That’s not a question I ever asked myself. I had a few excuses.
From the time I could read, books were my companions, and reading was my natural occupation outside of school. This appetite was nurtured by a mother who, between customers, in her shop, read a great many novels, and preferred me reading rather than sewing and knitting. The high cost of books, the suspicion with which they were regarded at my religious school, made them even more desirable. Don Quixote, Gulliver’s Travels, Jane Eyre, the tales of Grimm and Andersen, David Copperfield, Gone with the Wind, and later Les Misérables, The Grapes of Wrath, Nausea, The Stranger: chance, more than the school’s prescriptions, determined what I read.
By choosing literary studies I elected to remain inside literature, which had become the thing of greatest value, even a way of life that led me to project myself into the novels of Flaubert or Virginia Woolf and literally live them out. Literature was a sort of continent which I unconsciously set in opposition to my social environment. And I conceived of writing as nothing less than the possibility of transfiguring reality.
The next episodes of the podcast on the Nobel Prize will be
William Butler (W.B) Yeats 1923 100th anniversary (15 September)
Patrick White 1973 50th anniversary (22 September)
Olga Tokarczuk 2018 my favourite discovery of the alst decade (15 September)
2023 Winner announced on the evening of 5 October my time (6 October)
I also am toying with doing a YouTube Livestream on the night of the announcement. Would you join me for that? Let me know with a comment.
5. What surprised me most this week.
I was surprised, and maybe not so surprised, by the development by Huawei of an advanced microchip. The illusions of the West that they are endowed with some innate advantage of creativity and technological superiority are falling.
I was surprised by a story spread by historian Peter Frankopan that China had enabled legal action against foreign states that disrespect international law by removing their state immunity. Maybe NATO countries seizing assets and foreign reserves of other countries was not the wisest course of action. Rule of law, it seems, is no longer a cultural advantage and moral claim in the West
6. Gratitudes and Works-in-Progress
I am grateful to the kind YouTube viewers who have expressed appreciation of my YouTube channel. Such a simple thing, but also a wonderful thing that this platform can enable appreciative inquiry by people all around the world about the past and many cultures. Please join me there. I am trying to make YouTube a place for serious cultural and historical inquiry, and not just clickbait and Mr Beast videos.
This week my works-in-progress and published content were:
on the podcast I published Episode 117 History of the Nobel Prize for Literature and Last Year’s Winner, Annie Ernaux
On the YouTube Channel I published my guide to the Wolfson History Prize shortlist, America, its Hispanic Past, the Multipolar World and the Rise of China - World Historian Reacts, and on Saturday the final section of the interview with Felipe Fernandez-Armesto will be published.
On Twitter, I largely promoted my videos, podcasts and articles, especially my interview with Hannah Forsyth and the video on The Wolfson shortlist
For SubStack, I drafted my next article in the World Crisis series.
I fully edited my videos for my Writing in Government Masterclass, and to be honest felt this is a really good course that people who write in government can get a lot from. More on that soon.
I edited my next book collection of poems, Cantos from a Cage: Poems of Lockdown, which should be out in October or November
I began drafting my next essay-book, which I am provisionally calling Life After Western Democracy.
Next week, I will publish the next instalment of my Sub-Stack series on the economic dimension of the World Crisis. Also, look out for a piece by me on the G20 and what it means for the institutions of the multipolar, multidimensional world. And I will be pushing hard to finish my Writing in Government Masterclass.
On Youtube I am releasing the video version of my interview with Hannah Forsyth and a video version of my history of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
On Friday on the podcast my episode celebrates the 100th anniversary of W.B. Yeats’ Nobel Prize.
7. What I am Reading and Closing Verse
I read Pushkin’s story The Blizzard) which is a stunning story, only about 10 pages long but remarkable.
I close the newsletter with a stanza from a poem I have enjoyed during the week. I discovered in reading Eaton, India in the Persianate Age, 1000-1765, the poet Lalla (also called Laleshwari, Lal Ded or Lad Ded [Mother Lalla] d. 1392). This female poet from the Kashmir region broke her ties with family, wandered the world in search of truth, and developed an extraordinary following.
I, Lalla, entered by the garden-gate of my own mind,
And there (O joy!) saw Siva with Shakti sealed in one;
And there itself I merged in the Lake of Immortal Bliss.
Now while alive I am unchained from the wheel of birth and death,
What can the world do unto me?
You can read about this Sufi mystic and symbol of female power here or here, and read some of her poems here.
Until next week, take care, stay sane, and remember to ask, what can the world do unto me?