This book presents a unique effort to apply political philosophy to
realities of the world. Among numerous objectives that states,
politicians, and individuals try to reach, some are vague, like
power, interest, and happiness. Some others, like democracy, order,
and rule of law, are ways and means to serve more fundamental
purposes. While national reunification is seen as prerequisite on
the political agenda of the People's Republic of China and both
South and North Koreas, and religious purity is regarded as
essential to many Muslim communities, these are not universally
accepted principal goals in the world. The author identifies and
defines security, wealth, faith, justice, and freedom as five
ultimate goals in world politics and explains why they are central.
Without jargons and using many cases in China and other countries,
the author illustrates that different countries at different times
have varied priorities in their national politics, but they must
provide security, sustain economic growth, set up a value system,
maintain social justice, and secure personal freedom for their
citizens. Although the world today has been relatively peaceful and
accumulated much more wealth as compared to the past centuries,
vacuums of faith and morality, conflicting beliefs, and lack of
social justice are threatening mankind. In theory, the five
ultimate goals should be reached simultaneously and reinforce each
other. However, in practice they are often in contradiction. For
example, national security might be strengthened at the expense of
prosperity, and industrialization for economic growth has
sacrificed nontraditional security interests such as the
environment. The accumulation of wealth often results in its
unequal distribution and grievances about injustice, and freedom
and equality are regarded by some political thinkers as "natural
enemies" to each other. A virtuous state should be able to reach
all the five goals, while a bad state may not have even one of
them. Looking around the world today, Denmark in Europe and Japan
in Asia are closer to a virtuous state than most other countries
despite their own deficiencies, but they are generally homogeneous
in terms of ethnicity and culture. Singapore, with its ethnic
diversity, has to limit freedom to obtain other goals. This book
compares the development paths of China, the United States, and
some other countries to demonstrate their advantages and
disadvantages in becoming a better polity.
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