Many have taken a long, hard look at Japanese history before the Meiji modernisation in the 19th century and Asian history before westernisation.

ECONOMIST: The once and future boom

His argument that modernisation does not necessarily entail Westernisation also looks prescient: why should the Chinese embrace the American economic model when it seems to produce such economic havoc?

ECONOMIST: Lexington

We in Africa want modernisation but not necessarily westernisation.

ECONOMIST: Letters

Qataris know the tale of their next door neighbour Dubai, who by opening its arms to the world subsumed traditional Emirati culture in favour of westernisation, and all the vices that came with it.

BBC: Qatar: regional backwater to global player

Influenced by the writings of Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein (historians who helped establish a tradition of global comparative history), large numbers of Japanese intellectuals are beginning to realise that a global economic system existed in the areas around the Indian Ocean, the Arabic Sea, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea long before the westernisation of the world.

ECONOMIST: The once and future boom