Okay, now this may be crossing into today, if so then please move it where it belongs. In any case, nowadays we see that Europe and North America are, if not in decline, then not growing relatively as much as others are, with “others” meaning places like Indonesia, India, China. How can that be prevented? I think a good idea would be for the countries that today, as -relatively- unified polities pose a threat to an established word order, to be dismantled: maybe British colonial government emphasizes on the difference between different regions of India and when India is given independence it is broken up into half a dozen or more states, the same with Indonesia or the Philippines and other countries, Nigeria perhaps in Africa, and China could hav what either an even more protracted civil war, or being broken up into a lot of independent nations, or even the Gang of Four turning it into a giant North Korea hellhole.
Another idea could be a more “unified” Western World. Think of an EU structure arching over Europe, Japan & South Korea, North America as well as parts of Latin America, the former White Dominions and so forth. Free trade and movement between developed nations, more coordination between them and a unified approach towards the places that are up and coming in the world could really change the balance, in my opinion. What do you honk? Another challenge would be a combination of both approaches I guess
Now, that is one part of the question, producing the necessary circumstances to essentially prevent large states developing world from challenging an established order. I’m not thinking of Asia or Africa never rising, just more countries following, for example, Japan or South Korea’s example rather than the Chinese one; more small states becoming liberal polities, economically and politically as well as eventually culturally.
On to the second part of this: what would such a world look like? I don’t think one would need to butterfly the Rise of Japan, but maybe more countries follow its example, what would that look like?