Reclaiming Globalisation
The events of 2023 as turning point
The events of 2023 were a turning point for me, in fully and finally accepting that the West holds absolutely no moral authority in the world anymore. It’s not exactly news to me. Born in Hong Kong and having spent a large part of my adult life living and working in China and the emerging world, I am no stranger to a lack of balance and nuance in how the West likes to portray itself as the guardian of human rights, freedom and democracy. Yet the unequivocal support of the West for Israel in the continued bombing of innocent children in Gaza has been the final straw in any alignment I might have felt with the values that have defined so much of Western power in the world.
Understand what constitutes true power
We need to have a deeper understanding of what constitutes true power in our world and to hold our leaders accountable to exhibiting what I call ‘higher order’ leadership. ‘Higher order’ leadership is the capacity to ‘dig deep’ into the humility, honesty and unselfishness that is required in order to empower the potential of our world and the human beings that populate it, many of whom vote and have the right to demand a different style of leadership. We need to understand that the forces shaping our current geopolitical landscape are actually a call to redefine what power can and should look like. The West no longer has the moral authority to shape the values of our time, yet we can’t afford a moral vacuum either.
I have written before about the moral corruption of America, based on a singular definition of what constitutes power, purely on economic and military terms. What excites me so much about supporting the emergence of a more multi-polar world is the opportunities it brings us to really dissect what power can and should mean in the 21st century. I believe we need new definitions of power that challenge ideas about what true freedom really means and that can push us to a deeper understanding of how we respond as leaders to the needs of our time.
This isn’t a rallying cry for ‘power to the people’ in the old way in which that was meant. Rather, it calls upon us to create contexts for people to self-actualise in a way that privileges our essential humanity over and above our political, national or local affiliations. A leader’s job, overall, should be in service to enabling the emergence of the true potential of those they serve. To remember that leadership is an act of service, not ego, and to restore the right relationship between those that govern and the governed. There needs to be greater transparency, accountability, and a revival of the social contract that goes beyond just simply our democratic processes towards a reminder of the values that inspired democracy in the first place.
This actually shouldn’t be something that frightens the West. If we truly stand by our principles of freedom, democracy, human rights, equality, this self-examination will enable us to refine and purify what those definitions stand for and how they play out in the 21st century. But what we are seeing right now is a narrow understanding of these ‘higher order’ principles that could do with a re-examination and the necessary self-reflection to take them to the next level of expression for contemporary times.
An example
In the country where I live, France, liberté, egalité, fraternité, ‘freedom, equality and brotherhood’ is, quite literally, proclaimed on every single town hall across the country. Yet it is rarely lived as a value that defines the laws and norms of French contemporary society, in politics, but also in public and private life. The values themselves have become ossified in a narrow expression that focuses more on rules and regulations than it does on enabling and expressing our true humanity. If freedom of expression is to allow the publication of satire that offends other cultures and religions, whilst also restricting what people can and can’t wear, then we have lost the soul of what those values stand for and a larger sense of what constitutes true freedom. Have we really become so reductive in the understanding and practise of what those ‘higher order’ values really mean?
For our world to progress in any form is going to require a more nuanced understanding of the values shaping our world and what people want and need from their leaders, remembering that the ‘badge’ of democracy is only as good as it is truly lived. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves and revisit the ‘higher order’ values that inspired the democratic systems and processes in the first place.
Reclaiming globalisation — it’s about the people
But, fundamentally, I refuse to allow politicians to hijack what, to me, is true globalisation, the exchanges, friendships, trading relationships that continue to go on in the people-to-people level for it is here that, I believe, true peace and security will come. The more we reach out to the other, the more we take a stand for actually living the values we espouse on a day to day level, and the more we raise our children to be the leaders the world needs, then I, personally, can find peace in my own heart and experience.
Globale
At The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership, we think often of the French term ‘globale’ to encompass a sense of being global that isn’t just about our knowledge and understanding of other cultures, but about taking a more holistic view of what’s on our doorstep too. We need to understand that being global is more a way of thinking and being in our world, that seeks to honour our wholeness, interconnectedness, our depth and nuance. We need to reclaim that part of ourselves in our quest to understand what true global leadership can and should mean.
Caroline Watson is an award-winning entrepreneur, and a disruptive thinker, speaker and writer on issues of global governance and leadership. She is also the founder of The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership, empowering the ‘higher order’ leadership potential of current and future leaders through participation in the arts and creative education.
