Book Review: Westlessness by Samir Puri and the Great Global Rebalancing

Samir Puri’s book, Westlessness: The Great Global Rebalancing, analyzes the decline of Western geopolitical dominance and the shift of economic and cultural power toward nations including India, Indonesia, and China. According to reviews from E-International Relations and other outlets, Puri argues that the global order is being contested rather than simply collapsing, treating non-Western actors as active agents in this transition.

How does Westlessness redefine the decline of Western power?

The central thesis of Westlessness rejects the idea that the world is witnessing a total collapse of order. Instead, Puri insists that the current global structure is contested. This distinction shifts the narrative from a passive fall of the West to an active struggle for influence among competing global powers.

Puri challenges common intellectual frameworks used to explain this shift. In a review by Open Letters Review published July 23, 2024, the author is noted for criticizing the tendency of Western literary circles to use the decline of the Roman Empire as a primary analogy for modern geopolitical shifts.

Puri argues that these classical allusions are often used to make the speaker appear cultured but are ineffective for understanding the actual dynamics of diminishing Western influence.

“One common coping mechanism deployed in literary Western circles is to look to the Romans and search for analogies in their imperial decline. Allusions to the classical world tend to make their enunciator sound eminently cultured [but they are useless when] fathoming the era of diminishing Western influence.”

Samir Puri, as quoted in Open Letters Review

Why does Puri emphasize the agency of non-Western actors?

A primary pillar of Puri’s analysis is the treatment of non-Western nations as agents rather than objects. Rather than viewing the rise of the Global South as a byproduct of Western failure, the work frames these nations as intentional drivers of the “Great Global Rebalancing.”

This approach avoids treating non-Western states as passive recipients of a changing order. By focusing on the agency of countries like India and Indonesia, Puri provides a framework where these actors actively shape the new geopolitical hierarchy.

What historical and demographic factors shape this global rebalancing?

Puri grounds his analysis in a historical trajectory that begins with European colonialism and the subsequent rise of the United States. He examines how the U.S. achieved “booming superabundance” after its internecine civil war and eventually took control of global leadership.

The book also examines the specific trajectory of China. While some analysts predict an unstoppable “red century” of Chinese advance, Puri incorporates Sinological perspectives to argue that demographic challenges are undermining this rise. According to Open Letters Review, Puri suggests that the “demographic rug” is being pulled from beneath China’s economic ambitions.

By contrasting the historical rise of the West with current demographic and economic data, Puri argues against “grifters” who discuss de-Westernisation in bad faith or through apocryphal means.

How has the academic and literary community received the work?

The work has received significant attention from academic and literary critics. On August 13, 2024, Dr. Samir Puri noted that the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) published a full-page review of the book.

The review was written by Professor Rana Mitter, a Harvard professor and authority on China. Mitter characterized the book as “a detailed, engaging and well-supported account” of the shifting global order.

The analysis provided in Westlessness serves as a critique of both the “inevitable decline” narrative and the “unstoppable rise” myths, proposing instead a world of contested power and active global agency.