The Emerging Post-American World: Democratise, Demilitarise, De-dollarize

The transcript of the “Big Picture Analysis” by Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussein, Chair of Pakistan-China Institute and formerly Amnesty International “prisoner of conscience” (Watch HERE)

It’s a pleasure to be speaking at on this distinguished panel on this bright sunny Sunday morning from Islamabad.

And I would also like to recognize Madam Rul Shadeed (co-director of Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy) from Palestine and Professor Michimi Muranushi (of Gakushuin University) from Japan. and greetings to both of you from Islamabad.

I think the topic that you are focusing on Dr. Zani is extremely important because we are living in times of transformation and turbulence.

This reminds me of a very famous saying of the great Lenin. He once said there are decades when nothing happens and then there are weeks when decades happen. I think we are living through that epoch when in the weeks that we have seen decades are happening: huge. transformations (in world affairs).

So I’ll first of all focus on the big picture, then focus on what you said about the Pakistan-Saudi defence agreement on which we are releasing a report today from my think tank.

The report will be available online also and anybody who wants it can have it from Dr. Moni with whom I’ll share the report and then we’ll say what can be the way forward in these transformative times.

Let’s look at what people have been talking about the epochal changes that we talk about. President Xi Jinping of China. I was recently in China by the way and Vietnam and Japan.

He said that we are witnessing changes that have not been seen for a century.

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, the EU commissioner, she recently made a speech in April 2025 and she said and I quote, “the West as we know it has ceased to exist. “ This is coming from the EU boss.

“The West as we know it has ceased to exist.”

(The French) President Macron addressed the French ambassadors who are on home leave in the summer. He said and, I quote, “300 years of western hegemony is now coming to an end.”

So, what we are witnessing today my friends and comrades is the transformation of the global world order. Even the Economist said the West-led liberal international order is slowly coming apart. The oracle has spoken!, so to speak, because these are the mouthpiece of the western establishment.

I think there are three fundamental realities that are important in these challenging times and of course when you talk of challenges you also talk of opportunities.

First, the decline of the West is irreversible.

By the West, I mean the United States of America and Europe. And President Trump knows that he is presiding over a declining America.

Hence the focus on Making America Great Again and so forth because he knows America the greatness that he talks about was there in the past. It’s no longer the sole superpower. We are in a multiple world which requires a multilateral approach.

So, the decline of the west the retrenchment of American influence in the world and uh that was also one reason why Pakistan-Saudi Arabia have this defence agreement. So that’s the first big reality.

The second one is the emergence of the Asian century spearheaded by China.

I think the American Century, which was talked about a lot, after World War II, and which came after the decline of French and British colonialism after World War II, (ended). I formally date the end of the American century to 15th of August 2021.

And why do I say 15th of August 2021?

Because that is the day the American troops left Afghanistan in a humiliating retreat. And that marked the formal demise of what was termed as the American century and the now we are seeing the dawn of the Asian century.

And I think that on the 3rd September 2025 when President Xi Jinping hosted leaders from 26 countries of the Global South including President Putin and President Kim Jong-Un of North Korea and displayed China’s military prowess that also indicated that a new world order, an alternative world order, is emerging. So that is the second big reality. The decline of the west is one. The rise of the Asian century and spearheaded by China.

And the third one is a very dangerous one, namely the resurgence of fascism, of Zionism, of right-wing racism.

This is very evident.

I think that what is happening in Gaza in the Occupied Palestine is worse than what has happened in recent history, worse than any Holocaust because this is a live televised genocide being perpetrated by a so-called state Israel by its ruling group led by Netanyahu who’s a war criminal. By the way he should be in jail – at the international criminal court with hands cuffed.

It’s unfortunate that we have these double standards and so we have this world order and there’s also this right-wing racism which we are seeing surfacing in different parts of Europe in different parts of North America and of course it’s very evident even in next door in India where we have that kind of a regime which is based on a racist and a bigoted approach towards the Others as they call it.

Zionism itself is a form of racism and racist discrimination and that is the official ideology of Israel.

So, these are the major trends that we see and in the context of uh when we look at the big picture so there’s an inexorable inevitable and irreversible shift of global power and the global centre of gravity is moving to the Global South (Global Majority) and China’s rise, as President Xi Jinping said, is unstoppable.

When we talk of the Pakistan Saudi agreement, defence agreement, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have a very old relationship. Pakistan has always been a player in a different form in the Middle East. We are the only non-Arab country that has taken part in two Arab-Israeli wars.

Pakistani pilots participated in the 1967 June 67 Arab-Israel war on behalf of Jordan and Iraq Air Forces and we shot down three Israeli planes.

During the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, our planes took part on behalf of the Syrian Air Force and the Egyptian Air Force and we shot down also two Israeli planes.

So we have been a player in that and the first Islamic summit which was co-hosted by King Faisil and then Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mr. Bhau in Lahore in 1974 was the first time when the PLO the Palestine liberation organization under chairman Yaser Arafat achieved global recognition as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Palestine. So there are three reasons for this thing. Number one, it’s very clear that Israel is the main threat to the Middle East peace and global peace.

And Israel has embarked on what they call Eretz Israel, greater Israel. They have launched aggression against six countries in the last couple of years, starting with Palestine of course, then Iran also, then Yemen, then Lebanon, then Syria also, and then finally against Qatar. All, backed by the United States of America, and the western countries through the hypocrisy and double standards.

Nobody’s stopping them. So the threat of Israel is now being seen by even these Gulf Arab countries.

And the second most important thing is that the United States had an agreement with these countries to protect them to provide security for them for which they spent billions of dollars.

The US has failed to do that.

There was no stopping of the Israeli aggression and attack against Doha. Uh and uh the American missiles, patriot missiles, their batteries that failed.

So, there is a recognition that Israel is the main threat. This threat has to be met by other countries who are friendly (to the Arab nations).

The United States has failed to deliver on its promises of security. There is growing disillusionment with the US and its security guarantees. For that reason, Pakistan has emerged for countries like Saudi Arabia as a feasible security alternative because Pakistan is a country of 250 million people. We have a large armed force. We also have the nuclear strength and we are the only Muslim nuclear power.

Recently when India launched an aggressive attack against Pakistan in May, we gave them a bloody nose. We shot down seven of their planes including French-made Rafael’s and MiGs and SUs fighter jets. Importantly, Pakistan possesses a willingness and capability – and I would say – as well as skills and a political vision to play that role. So Pakistan is seen in that context and of course it’s a purely defensive role.

We are there to protect our friends and we’ve done it in the past. We also have had security agreements with other countries and recently in the World cup in Qatar 2022 Pakistan Army provided protection to them.

Finally, I’d like to say what is the way forward when we talk of the new emerging order. I think three Ds will define that three Ds.

First the democratization of the global order. the global order controlled by a few countries or G7 or a very White-Man’s world (Western-dominated world order).

Our Global South is now the global majority.

So you need democratization in the United Nations in the world order where decision-making is diffused. It’s no longer the world of the sole SuperPower. It is no longer the unipolar world. So, number one is democratization of the world order based on the United Nations charter and the international law and the issue is not might is right. The issue is right is might.

The second is the demilitarization of the international order because right now we have seen wars, conflicts, confrontation. After 9/11, the US has spent $8 trillion on killing people in the Middle East, starting with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen. About a million people were killed, 30 million were homeless. 324,000 bombs, missiles, and drones were thrown on these countries.

But the US still failed, despite $8 trillion, having been spent.

So, demilitarization is crucial.

The US has 800 military bases in the world. 400 of which are which in Asia.

So, we reject a new cold war and we reject any kind of militarization of international relations.

And the third uh area for the way forward is de-dollarization because the dollar is also being used as a weapon by the United States.

There are a total of 193 members of the United Nations out of those 68 countries have said they’re willing to trade in currencies other than the dollar. So the process of de-dollarization has begun whether it’s the rand R&B, rubel, real or rupia. So these this is going to be the other currency which is very much there.

So I would like to close on that and I feel we should welcome the coming of this new order and the decline and ultimate demise of the old order which failed to deliver, which

was inequitable and which was unjust. Thank you so much.

The transcript of “Israel Exposed; Saudi Arabia Redirected” by Michimi Muranushi (watch HERE)

The world has changed profoundly since the pre–October 7, 2023 era. Before that date, Israel had achieved the Abraham Accords and appeared on the verge of diplomatically isolating the Palestinians by forging closer ties with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations. While these relationships seemed primarily commercial in nature, they signaled a serious shift: the region’s largest power was seemingly prepared to sideline the Palestinian issue in pursuit of economic prosperity.

At that time, a growing divergence had already emerged between the will of the people in Muslim-majority countries and the policies of their authoritarian governments. Israel’s transformation into a high-tech powerhouse had appealed strongly to regional leaders, but not to the broader public. Ordinary people across the Middle East remained far more connected to the Palestinian plight than their rulers, and they were less swayed by the promises of business-driven normalization.

The October 7 Hamas attack had a fundamental aim: to expose the true nature of Israel—not just to Muslim states, but to their citizens and to the global community. In essence, it was an act meant to “reveal” Israel. For decades, under the protective veil of Jewish historical suffering and the tragedies of the Holocaust, key aspects of Israel’s formation—particularly its engagement in ethnic cleansing—were obscured. The occupation of Palestinian land, long illegal under international law, was diplomatically masked by the Oslo Accords and other such processes.

At an extremely high cost, Hamas managed to thrust Israel’s actions into the international spotlight, revealing patterns of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and acts many now identify as genocide. Several key outcomes emerged:

1. Israel’s vulnerability was laid bare by the surprise of the October 7 attacks and its ensuing confrontation with Iran.
2. The genocidal intent of many Israeli leaders and segments of society became clear. Officials publicly dehumanized Gazans, erasing the line between Hamas and civilians. Songs celebrating Gaza’s destruction circulated, soldiers shared mocking videos, and widespread social approval followed. Phrases like “Erase Gaza” were no longer uncommon.

iii. The military conflict expanded into a multi-front struggle. Israel, instead of targeting one adversary at a time, chose to confront several simultaneously, thereby escalating regional tensions and exposing its own overextension.

Authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia likely recognized the dangers of aligning too closely with Israel while diverging significantly from their own populations’ sentiments. Although not yet renouncing the Abraham Accords, they found it necessary to demonstrate—both domestically and internationally—that they were not turning their backs on the Palestinian cause or the broader Arab world.

A critical question in geopolitical intelligence is whether the Trump administration truly grasped the implications of this shift. Was it watching for signs that Middle Eastern powers, frustrated by U.S. inaction, might turn toward a nuclear-armed Pakistan? Trump’s personal affinity for Netanyahu may have blinded him to the broader stakes—not only the tens of thousands of Gazan lives but also the reputational and strategic risks facing Arab leaders.

Amid the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, American prestige has undeniably declined. The Saudi–Pakistani alignment would have been unlikely if Washington’s opinion still carried decisive weight. But the surreal pragmatism of U.S. policy—such as Trump’s proposal to “buy” Gaza—further eroded its credibility and global standing.

There is also a widening gap between the U.S. government and its people. A significant portion of the American public—including many Jews—are increasingly critical of Israel. Yet political leaders across party lines remain bound by longstanding ties to pro-Israel campaign donors. The 2025 Democratic primary for New York’s mayoral race revealed that even American Jews are reconsidering the future of Israel—not as a Jewish state, but as one grounded in equality for all its citizens. It’s a long battle, but the shift has begun.

In this context, Saudi Arabia’s pivot toward supporting Palestine—despite likely pushback from both Israel and the U.S.—represents a small but meaningful step forward. Israel has now revealed itself to be a rogue state, committing atrocities under the hollow pretense of “anti-terrorism.” Many Israelis appear indifferent to the mass suffering their state inflicts. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to funnel military aid to Israel. Under these circumstances, any move toward Palestine must be encouraged and sustained.

The Israeli assault ​on Qater served as a catalyst for the Saudi–Pakistani pact. However, this development should not be overestimated. Beneath it lies a deeper concern: the world is witnessing multiple genocides unfolding in parallel—Palestine, Rakhine (Myanmar), and Xinjiang (China), all bearing elements of settler-colonialism. Yet global responses differ widely.

Most Muslim nations strongly opposed the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar and have become more vocally critical of Israel since October 7.

Yet, there remains a troubling silence—or even complicity—when it comes to the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.

South Africa, which led efforts to bring Israel to international courts, has largely ignored China’s actions in Xinjiang and has even praised Beijing.

The U.S., an early critic of China’s actions in Xinjiang, has allowed Israel to continue its own campaign of destruction in Gaza.

Meanwhile, China condemns Israel’s aggression on Gaza while simultaneously continuing its oppression in Xinjiang.

What emerges beyond the horrors of Gaza is a deeper, more global problem: the universalization of double standards. These double standards are not confined to the United States alone—they are now prevalent across the Global South as well.