There are many who speak of the inevitability of the Thucydides trap when analyzing geopolitical trends. Recalling the historian of ancient Greece, they claim that the competition between the United States and China has similarities to that between Sparta and Athens in the Peloponnesian wars: China is like Athens, the rising power in the Hellenic world confronting Sparta, that is, the US, the existing, dominant power.
But compared with the thesis analyzing how a hegemonic power is built in history, there is another possibility, perhaps more realistic and efficient in the face of existing challenges facing the world today. A thesis also supported by ancient wisdom, capable of answering an essential question: how would Socrates and Confucius understand each other in the 21st century?
At the end of 2018, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized in Doha: "We face enormous challenges that can't be solved by any country on its own: climate change — the defining challenge of our times; migration and refugees — people on the move, everywhere; the multiplication of conflicts that are increasingly interlinked, and which itself is linked to newer threats of global terrorism and international criminality; and the impacts of new technologies that are difficult to manage in all their dimensions. The list goes on".
Guterres was spot on. The COVID-19 pandemic caused record numbers of infections and deaths all over the world. The Russia-Ukraine conflict, in turn, beyond the scene of the conflict, has shown how food security could be threatened globally, even if unexpected military action is focused on one place. The world economy shows the fractures that these linked crises have brought about.
Those who resort to the zero-sum concept to deal with the complexity of contemporary problems are in error. Nobody, alone, can give guarantees of the stability of the global situation in the future, making evident the need for dialogue and cooperation.
In other words, this is not the time to build or preserve hegemonies. It is time to practice cooperation, however complex the dialogue may be for it.
Why recall the two wise old men to give contemporary geopolitics a certain direction? First, because they are sources of fundamental thought in the West and the East. From them derived essential concepts of life: in the West the "I", the "being and the search for truth" as essential philosophical determinants, starting with Socrates, as Plato wrote it; at the other end of the world, in Asia, the "we" and the concept of "becoming and the cult of ancestors" as keys to the existence of every human being, according to Confucius and later Mencius.
Now the time has come for both great sources of human thought — very decisive along with others that are equally important — to articulate and configure the great matrix of thought, from which humankind can work together to build a better life for the planet. Neither of them postulates confrontation and hegemonic domination as keys in the exercise of power. Both speak of virtue, of wisdom, of harmony. It is from there that living and practicing politics in an interconnected world is possible.
Not long ago, the Russia-Ukraine conflict was discussed at the Athens Democracy Forum organized by the Democracy and Culture Foundation. A unique debate was held at the event. Ban Ki-moon, former UN secretary-general, was asked to represent Confucius and, in that role, bring his thoughts to the present to open up paths to peace and end the conflict.
In front of him was Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent American academic and great defender of sustainable development, representing Aristotle and bringing forward the Greek philosopher's thought to provide some way out of the conflict.
These are contributions that may be useful if and when the conflicting parties sit face to face. Those present at the debate and those who have seen it on some internet platform feel that the multilateralism we are trying to promote should follow that logic. There can be no cooperation based only on the way the West understands society. Shared actions will be possible only through intercultural familiarity without hegemony and when diverse thoughts respect each other.
The UN is to hold the Summit of the Future in the second half of 2024. A global event, it aims to forge a consensus in the face of major global challenges, from climate change to armed conflicts. If this analysis places human beings at the center, the multilateral task will also be to address the complex interlinking of deficiencies and problems that need to be resolved.
In a few decades the world will keep 8 billion people. And only in two decades smartphones have changed the perception of what is global and expanded knowledge, and ratified that the distant and the close often coincide at the same point. That's why China's proposals such as the Global Development Initiative are essential in a post-pandemic world.
Postulating cooperation as a priority principle in the global reorganization does not mean that the other "Cs" — competition and confrontation — remain on the sidelines. To think so would be unrealistic.
Living in today's world full of geopolitical challenges, there is a need to stop and look at Thucydides and his trap as the inescapable way out of conflicts. Much more important is to identify how and where Socrates and Confucius coincide, because we need them both, simultaneously, in the coming times.
The author is a former ambassador of Chile to China, and the director of the Center for Latin-American Studies on China, Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile.
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.