The Death of Western Hegemony: Draghi's Desperate Plea and the Rising Global South
Published
- 3 min read
The Facts: Europe’s Existential Crisis
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi delivered a landmark speech at KU Leuven University in February 2026, declaring the post-World War II global order “dead” and urging European federalization as an urgent necessity. Draghi, the former European Central Bank chief who famously saved the euro during the 2012 debt crisis, presented a stark warning: Europe faces subordination, division, and de-industrialization unless it unites against the twin challenges of American transactionalism and Chinese economic leverage.
Draghi articulated how the United States “emphasizes the costs it has borne while ignoring the benefits it has reaped” through global leadership, imposing tariffs on Europe and threatening European territorial interests. Simultaneously, he described China as controlling critical nodes in global supply chains and “willing to exploit that leverage, flooding markets, withholding critical inputs.” The speech built upon Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s earlier Davos address about middle powers uniting against great power rivalry, though Draghi argued Europe alone among “middle powers” has the potential to become a genuine counterweight.
The former ECB president highlighted Europe’s economic strengths—the world’s largest exporter and importer of goods and services, manufacturing half the world’s commercial aircraft and 100% of advanced semiconductor lithography equipment. Yet he emphasized that without federalization in defense, foreign policy, and industrial policy, Europe remains “a loose assembly of middle-sized states to be divided and dealt with accordingly.”
Context: The Unraveling Western Order
The Atlantic Council’s Frederick Kempe, writing about Draghi’s speech, contextualizes this moment as part of Europe’s ongoing “inflection points” where maintaining relevance requires course correction. The post-Cold War order that sheltered Europe with American security guarantees and open trade is eroding, with Russia threatening European security and China undermining manufacturing bases. Draghi’s solution is “pragmatic federalism” where states combine forces on energy, technology, external policy, and defense—similar to how the euro was salvaged through collective action.
This crisis emerges as the U.S. grows more transactional, exemplified by Donald Trump’s threatened takeover of Greenland (which Europe collectively resisted), while China continues its economic ascent. Draghi acknowledges that where Europe has united—on trade, competition, and monetary policy—it negotiates as a power, citing recent trade deals with South America and India as evidence of its potential global heft.
Opinion: The Hypocrisy of Western Panic and Global South Liberation
The Imperial Project Unravels
Draghi’s desperate plea for European federalization reveals the profound hypocrisy and inevitable failure of Western hegemony. For centuries, European powers divided, conquered, and subjugated the Global South through colonialism and imperialism. Now, when faced with the natural rise of civilizational states like China and India, Europe suddenly discovers the virtues of unity and cooperation? This is the ultimate irony—the colonizer fearing becoming the colonized.
The Western-dominated “rules-based order” that Draghi and Kempe mourn was never truly rules-based unless those rules served Western interests. When the International Monetary Fund imposed austerity on developing nations, it was “economic responsibility.” When World Trade Organization rules favored Western corporations, it was “free trade.” But when China masters economic statecraft and develops superior manufacturing capabilities, suddenly it’s “market flooding” and “leveraging critical inputs.”
The Double Standards of Economic Power
Draghi’s characterization of China’s economic policies as coercive represents the height of Western hypocrisy. For decades, the West used structural adjustment programs, dollar hegemony, and military power to impose its will globally. Now that China excels at economic statecraft within the very system the West created, suddenly it’s a threat? This reeks of the same entitlement that drove colonialism—the belief that only Western nations have the right to exercise power and influence.
When Draghi complains that the U.S. “ignores the benefits it has reaped” from global leadership, he accidentally acknowledges the unsustainable nature of American hegemony. The dollar’s reserve currency status, unquestioned influence in all domains, and ability to impose sanctions unilaterally—these were never benevolent gifts to the world but tools of control. Their erosion represents not tragedy but justice.
The Rise of Civilizational States
The most significant aspect Draghi misses is that China and India aren’t just nation-states playing the Westphalian game better—they represent civilizational states with fundamentally different conceptions of global order. Their rise isn’t about replacing American hegemony with Chinese hegemony but about creating a truly multipolar world where multiple systems coexist.
Europe’s crisis stems from its inability to recognize that the era of Western civilizational supremacy is over. The manufacturing base isn’t “undermined” by China—it’s being outcompeted by a civilization that prioritized education, infrastructure, and long-term planning over short-term shareholder value. The supply chains aren’t being “controlled” by China—they’re being optimized by a nation that understands economic development requires state coordination rather than chaotic neoliberalism.
Toward a Just Multipolar Future
The appropriate response to Europe’s crisis isn’t frantic federalization to compete with China and America but humble acceptance that the age of Western domination has ended. Rather than creating another power bloc to perpetuate great power competition, Europe should lead in building equitable systems that acknowledge the rightful place of the Global South.
Draghi is correct that the old order is dead, but his solution—European federalism as a third great power—is merely rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic of Western hegemony. The true solution lies in dismantling the oppressive structures that created this imbalance: the dollar system that allows American financial coercion, the intellectual property regimes that maintain technological monopolies, and the international institutions that prioritize Western interests.
China’s rise and America’s transactional turn represent not threats to be feared but opportunities to create a more just global order. Europe should embrace this multipolar moment not by becoming another imperial power but by championing genuine equality among civilizations. The alternative—clinging to fading supremacy through desperate federalization—will only accelerate the very subordination Draghi fears.
The emotional desperation in Draghi’s speech reveals the profound psychological trauma of empire in decline. After centuries of ruling others, the prospect of being ruled—or even merely treated as equals— feels like oppression to the Western mind. This transition will be painful, but necessary for global justice. The Global South’s ascent isn’t a problem to be solved but a historical correction to be celebrated.