How the West was lost

Martin Jacques, blogging in the Grauniad, makes an interesting point about the increasing parochialism of the West.

The preoccupation with the Middle East has only fuelled this problem. I
recently wrote a Guardian comment
piece attacking European attitudes towards the Danish cartoons. I got 350
emails for my sins. Plenty agreed, but there was an extremely disturbing number
that showed a violent, intolerant and ignorant attitude towards Muslims. It was
scary. It felt as if I was living at the time of the Crusades. If that is the
trough that Europe is descending into, then I fear for its future. What the hell
is Europe going to be like when it has to defer to Beijing and Delhi as the new
global centres?
But it isn't just a European problem. The worst, the most
aggressive, the most racist responses came from the United States. Reading them
made it all too easy to understand the physical abuse that has been heaped on
the Iraqis by US soldiers. How are Americans going to react to their country's
decline and the rise of China and India? At the moment they don't believe it
could possibly happen. Despite the disgraceful mess they have made of Iraq, they
are still gung-ho. They are still convinced it is the right of God's chosen
people to boss the world. And 9/11, unilateralism, and the invasion of Iraq have
hugely encouraged that.
I suspect, though, that it was all a huge historical
miscalculation. Always beware your moment of triumphalism: such emotions are a
poor steer on the future. And that future is not primarily about the Middle
East, but east Asia. Condoleeza Rice is presently touring east Asian capitals
giving thinly-veiled threats about the rise of China. The Americans are
beginning to get worried. And they should be too.