Global headwinds from East

Peter Frankopan

Marquee at Phyllis Court

Tuesday, October 7

PETER Frankopan opened his presentation by reminding the audience that it was now 10 years since his book The Silk Roads had been published.

It had sold more than three million copies, despite his initial choice of publisher rejecting it on the grounds that nobody would read it!

He promised the audience that he would give a quick overview of the original book before showing material from his most recent newly published book with a new chapter. Peter’s ideal of a “quick overview” left the audience gasping while he careered at breakneck speed though PowerPoint slides, graphs, exciting stories and humorous throwaway lines. This didn’t detract from his main point that the West is largely ignorant of the East.

We don’t have a detailed understanding of cultures and history from the Middle East, Asia, India, China and Russia, despite the fact he asserted that every neighbourhood in these countries knows our own culture and, for example, would be aware of who David Beckham and Elton John are.

He pointed out our prejudices to believe that Western Europe was the cradle of civilisation, when, in fact, cultural and scientific advances in the East had been superior to the West for a millennium beforehand.

Peter gave the example of Alexander the Great, born in 356BC. His empire stretched from Macedonia and Egypt across the East to Persia and India, where he knew great wealth awaited with treasures of silver, gold and spices. Alexander was not interested in conquering the West of Europe, which seemed inferior to him.

When Peter’s book The Silk Roads was first published, people were very interested in the rise of China, which had largely been hidden from Western view. Now, 10 years on, we were all frightened by the emergence of a strong and powerful China, whose ambition is to achieve world dominance. China has now more than 156 cities each with a population greater than one million people.

Peter explained that this new world order was not just China’s alone. He pointed out the fantastic rise in sovereign wealth from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. For example, look at the ownership of our top football teams and the shifting location of worldwide sports events gravitating to the East. We were shown the example of DP World’s ports of Dubai, where its investment in rare minerals was linked to building ports for extraction of wealth throughout the African continent.

The presentation ended with warning that our Western-centric view of the world needs to change, if we are to make sense of world events. The political, economic and military dominance of the West is fading. We ignore the rise of the “silk roads” again at our peril.

Terry Grourk