The World Economic Forum claims to represent global cooperation, but its structure, silences and hierarchies tell a different story about who sets the agenda – and who is expected to listen.
Chandran Nair
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The USA today: a derangement threatening the World
The response to events in Venezuela exposes how breaches of international law are absorbed, reframed, and normalised – and what that reveals about power, decadence, and global silence.
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Book extract: Understanding China: governance, socio-economics, global influence
China’s rise has reshaped global economics, lifted millions out of poverty, and challenged Western assumptions about governance. This extract from ‘Understanding China, Governance, Socio-Economics Global Influence’ argues that engagement, not confrontation, offers the only viable path forward.
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Carbon bootprints: How war is fuelling climate catastrophe
The military-industrial complex’s vast carbon footprint is deliberately hidden from public view, while we get gaslit into using paper straws. (more…)
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Neocolonialism, media propaganda, never-ending wars: Served with ketchup and fries – Part 2
In the 20th-century the American empire realised it could no longer rely solely on military might despite its need to grow the Military Industrial Complex, which remains central to its economy and its political hegemony. (more…)
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The unravelling of American exceptionalism: The inevitable decay of hegemony built on crassness – Part 1
In early May 2025, as Roman Catholic Cardinals gathered to pick the next Pope, US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of him as the Pope shortly after saying, “I would like to be Pope.” (more…)
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The AI that Silicon Valley fears: How DeepSeek democratised innovation
The Chinese company’s open-source model proves that innovation thrives on sharing, not Western Big Tech’s hypocritical monopolisation. (more…)
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The West and the rest: how genocide in Gaza will usher in the end of ‘his-story’
Since the beginning of this century — triggered by the United States’ illegal invasion of Iraq, its occupation of Afghanistan, and aided by the turbocharged arrival of the digital age — there has been significant growth in interest among those in the non-Western world around issues related to their colonial past. (more…)
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The world’s population is poised to decline – and that’s great news
Some 18 months ago, the news broke that China’s population was beginning to contract. There was a knee-jerk reaction from business commentators who were wringing their hands eagerly over the implications this would have on China’s economic forecast and its place in the world – namely that fewer people would result in less consumption, ultimately slower growth, and thus alter the trajectory of its rise. (more…)
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The global collapse of parenting and the rise of the device
Over ten years ago, I wrote an article for the Guardian that argued it was time to slay a sacred cow: that the internet is a force for good. Many advised me against writing it, saying it would be read as the views of a laggard, but it became one of the most-read articles published by the Guardian that year. (more…)
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To restore humanity, stop the genocide and make Israel accountable
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu (more…)
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If China became a democracy, would it still be rejected by the West?
Over the last few years, I have wondered about what drives the relentless Western animosity towards China. It seems a very logical question to ask if one wants to understand the world today. But you will be hard pressed to find this explained in commentary provided by the Western media. What one gets is screaming daily headlines, like one recently found in the FT:“US seeks to isolate China with help of Allies.” (more…)
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Will 2024 be the year to rein in the military-industrial complex, the biggest threat to global peace?
The complex, a key part of US political economy, fuels geopolitical tensions and enables countries and private actors to push for and capitalise on conflict. It’s time for societies to make concerted efforts to rein it in and build a movement to educate the world about the grave threat it poses to civilisation. (more…)
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Governments must take drastic action on climate, not pander to the public, or we’re all doomed to boil
For truly effective measures to counter climate change, governments need to break from the ideological clutches of classical free market economics. Systemic change must be led by governments with requisite political power and intent, well-defined objectives, and authority to act without fear. (more…)
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Gaza and ‘the graveyard for children’: the moral decline of Western politics
Weak Western leaders, certain of their own exceptionalism, have endangered world peace by peddling narratives that justify the unjustifiable. Abuse of the charge of antisemitism silences those calling for an end to the bloodshed, fomenting a callous response to the killing of Palestinians. (more…)
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US must curb Israel’s revenge instinct, end Palestinian suffering by wielding its power for peace
The world is appalled that the US has backed a war of vengeance by Israel on the captive Palestinian population. A US-led global peace process is critical to ending decades of violence in the Israel-Gaza conflict. (more…)
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Facing existential threats, raging wars highlight our failure to co-exist
The world recently saw the hottest day in 120 thousand years, mainly driven by climate change arising from our addiction to fossil fuels – sustaining economic growth and maintaining our lifestyles. We are consuming more oil than ever before in human history – enough to fill 6,500 Olympic swimming pools every day. (more…)
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From America’s IRA to China’s eco-civilisation, a new global consensus is emerging. Globalisation and growth are out, redesigning society is in
This summer saw the hottest average global temperatures in the last 125,000 years. Europe is embroiled in war, with other conflicts raging around the world. The global economy is still reeling from the impacts of the first global pandemic since 1919. Experts are warning against the threat posed by our most advanced technological creation–artificial intelligence (AI). However, to piece together how we got here as a species and secure societies for the future, we need a heavy dose of BI–basic intelligence. (more…)
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The West must prepare for a long overdue reckoning
Five major trends illustrate how the world is changing, and that the West must grapple with the reality that it can no longer impose its “leadership” on the world as it once did. (more…)
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I’m sorry, but the toxic G-7 ‘rich club’ is past its sell-by date
YET ANOTHER G-7 meeting has passed with yet another embarrassing show of insecurity by a group that is well past its sell-by date. (more…)
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Hong Kong’s recovery: Greatest threat is parochialism
In January, the Finance Secretary Paul Chan went to Davos as part of an effort to encourage the world to join the government in its “embrace of a new start” for Hong Kong and to sell its numerous inherent strengths. Combined with efforts that coincided with the full opening-up of Hong Kong and recent visits to the Philippines, Vietnam, the UAE and Saudi Arabia by the Chief Executive, it was a much needed and timely reaffirmation of the government’s acute awareness of Hong Kong’s current optics problem and the need to forge new relationships. (more…)
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Can the West move beyond the business of war and work with China, other nations for global peace?
Instead of focusing on building bridges and finding common ground for peace, the West has increasingly sought to shore up support among its allies and castigate or demonise its enemies. (more…)
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India-ASEAN collaboration: shaping a new global agenda
India holds this year’s presidency of the Group of 20 and has boldly stated its vision as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (One Earth, One Family, One Future). This is a departure from the previous (and often dry) themes of the G20 which are dominated by geopolitical issues and economic priorities of Western powers. (more…)
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Anti-China rhetoric is off the charts: what explains the mass hysteria in the West?
A key feature of following the news and reporting from mainstream Western media today is the relentless China bashing. It is off the charts, tiring, and often regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. But it continues to be churned out with no end in sight. (more…)
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Nord Stream: Urgent need for international investigations into crimes against the environment
The explosions at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on September 26 in the Baltic Sea have been deemed an act of sabotage – but which nations or actors are responsible is yet to be known. Given the scale of the environmental crime, why are we not demanding the truth? What explains Western silence? (more…)
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It’s time for India to join the U.N. Security Council permanently
China in particular should support India’s ascension to permanent membership on the Security Council, a change that would reflect India’s global influence and a world order shifting away from the West’s dominance. (more…)
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American aggression needs to be reined in for the good of Asia and the world
Decades of exceptionalism, ideological obsessions and a deep-rooted sense of superiority is catching up with the United States. (more…)
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Work with China, not against it
Most Western commentators take comfort in describing the tensions between the United States and China as the inevitable rivalry of two superpowers. But this camouflages an uncomfortable truth: that we are moving from a Western-constructed world into a post-Western world, with China leading the charge. (more…)
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Tokenism against racism in the US helps hide an Inconvenient Global Scourge
The decision of US President Biden to announce that he would replace the outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by a black woman, Ketanji Brown Jackson may seem like a positive step in a country wracked by explicit and systemic racism. (more…)
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The West’s diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics is gold-medal hypocrisy
This petty action squanders an opportunity for positive engagement and is rooted in a sense of anxiety about the rise of a non-Western nation.