Let's aim for a longer-lasting global order

One of the amazing new phenomena of the rapidly changing past few decades is the change in power configuration of today's world compared to 20-30 years ago. The fall of the Berlin Wall not only ended the Cold War, but also, or even more significantly, combined the "two world markets" into one.

The enlarged world market enabled the free movement of many things, including capital and products, and the significant improvement in transportation and telecommunications made human beings and information more flow rapidly. The reallocation of wealth in a large context enables new accumulations of wealth, which is, however, unevenly spread out, and countries receive and use opportunities differently based on their mode of development.

As the developed world continues to develop at a slower pace and the emerging economies catch up, the economic power of the two in relative terms keeps changing. According to current US dollar indicators, the United States' share of global nominal GDP declined from about 26 percent of the global total in the post-Cold War period to about 24 percent today, while that of the big emerging economies, like China, India and Brazil, rose from 5 percent in 1990 to about 13.5 percent in 2009. China has made the highest jump, from less than 2 percent to more than 8 percent.