Western powers deemed as 'opportunistic, hypocritical, motivated purely by selfishness': Harvard professor

While Western countries deem themselves as best actors in the international arena, many non-Westerners regard them as "opportunistic, hypocritical, and motivated purely by selfishness," a Harvard University professor has said.

Dani Rodrik, professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, aired the view in his opinion piece titled "Taming the Security Dilemma" published on the Project Syndicate website on March 9.

"When U.S. and European policymakers talk about a 'rules-based international order,' they forget how that order has been constructed to suit their own countries' interests, and overlook their various transgressions of it," Rodrik said.

The West's sense of exceptionalism exacerbates the security dilemma, because it leaves little room for other nations' legitimate security concerns when Western countries expand their military presence and wield economic influence, he said.

Noting that it is possible to create a prosperous and stable world order while remaining realistic about the nature of great-power competition, the professor said whether we can achieve such an arrangement depends on how countries pursue their national-security goals, and on the stories they tell about themselves and their adversaries.