US can no longer assume rest of world on its side: Washington Post

NEW YORK -- Many of the largest and most powerful countries in the developing world are growing increasingly anti-Western and anti-American, and these attitudes are rooted in the phenomenon of "rise of the rest," reported The Washington Post early this month.

"Over the past two decades, a huge shift in the international system has taken place. Countries that were once populous but poor have moved from the margins to center stage," said the report. "Once representing a negligible share of the global economy, the 'emerging markets' now make up fully half of it. It would be fair to say they have emerged."

As these countries have become economically strong, politically stable and culturally proud, they have also become more nationalist, and their nationalism is often defined in opposition to the countries that dominate the international system -- meaning the West, it said.

The "new world" is not characterized by the decline of America but rather "the rise of everyone else," it said, noting that vast parts of the globe that were once pawns on the chessboard are now players and intend to choose their own, often proudly self-interested, moves.

"They will not be easily cowed or cajoled. They have to be persuaded -- with policies that are practiced at home and not just preached abroad. Navigating this international arena is the great challenge of U.S. diplomacy," it added.