The fusion of civilisations

Prof Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, and Prof Lawrence Summers of Harvard University noted that these days in the West, one more often encounters pessimism related to three current challenges: turbulence in the Islamic world, the rise of China, and intra-Western economic and political sclerosis. They opined that the pessimism is unwarranted, because none of these three challenges is insurmountable. They also highlighted that the fusion of civilisations and the social and economic changes associated with it can seem threatening to some, but increasingly open and enlightened societies are likely to avoid this danger.

• The Straits Times, 22 May 2016, Insight, pB8-B9