Interviewed on “Dialogue Works with Nima R. Alkhorshid” on April 7, retired Swiss Col. Jacques Baud warned that the West faces a crisis, born out of its refusal to recognize that the West is no longer hegemonic in the world, as new nations—China and India, for example—are now developing scientifically and technologically. This is the reality which U.S. President Donald Trump is ignoring when he “plays with tariffs,” Baud stressed.
Baud laid out the picture bluntly:
“China is challenging Western production, innovation, and technology. And it’s not just China. We focus on it because it’s the obvious superpower, but right behind China is India—equally potent, with enormous capabilities in innovation, knowledge, and development. So this power, which was concentrated in the West for centuries, is now shifting toward the rest of the world. And the West has no answer,” said Colonel Baud.
He warned that “the U.S. is behaving like it’s still the 1950s or 60s, when it was the world’s sole industrial superpower. Back then, it could decide what to produce and set the rules, because it was the only big market. But that’s not the case anymore. There’s a whole world outside the U.S. and Europe—strong, capable, and evolving at breakneck speed.
