Why 'Westlessness' is a worry for the world

AROUND 500 political and business leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, Mike Pompeo and Mark Zuckerberg, are making final preparations to attend this week's Munich Security Conference. One of the key themes of this year's event is the so-called "Westlessness", reflecting uncertainty about the enduring purpose of the West, despite the fact that it could yet be rejuvenated as a political force.

Key questions about the future of the West pre-date, of course, the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump's election as president, yet have been intensified by these events. Among the issues that will be raised at Munich this week are whether the world is becoming less Western, whether the West itself is becoming less Western, and what it means for the world if the West increasingly leaves the international stage to others.

This broad-ranging discussion relates to the phenomenon of "Westlessness", which will be defined at Munich as a "widespread feeling of uneasiness and restlessness in the face of increasing uncertainty about the enduring purpose of the West. Many security challenges seem to have become inseparable from what some describe as the decay of the Western project".