Multiple Modernities In A Multiplex World

The decline of the Western-dominated world order is not leading to multipolarity, as many traditional pundits assume, but to multiplexity. A Multiplex World has multiple layers of governance, including global, interregional, regional, domestic, and sub-state. Moreover, the idea challenges two of the core ideas of liberal modernity: its association of economic development with growth of the Gross Domestic Product and its conflation of security with "national security." It thus offers a powerful example of the notion of "multiple modernities." There have been major disagreements over how to define human security. According to the United Nations Development Programme, "Human security can be said to have two main aspects. It means, first, safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression. And second, it means protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life–whether in homes, in jobs or in communities.