Challenges of globalization

The following series of writings will be dealing with the dawn of the new globalized world. My writings will be dealing with questions such as relative decline of the Western Civilization and the rise of Asia (and other parts of the world). These writings will be dealing the decline of the power of the classical modern state which is developing into a globalized state. The world is much smaller than before and far more complicated. The optimism of ‘’the end of ideology and history’’ can be said to be over. We are in a brave new world with new challenges which my and the following generation are to be left dealing with.

This writing will be dealing with the Afghan and Iraq wars and terrorism. 

Our small world is increasingly moving towards an ever more virally and physically connected one. People – products and information flows are incredibly faster yet terribly woundable. What if somebody managed to cut off the internet? Or cut off the oil supplies from the Middle East? Destroy the financial flows of the world? These are the sort of matters we should pay interest to. Matters that are in a way increasing in their complexity.

Today is actually the first time in world history that troubles far away can affect the previously superior Western civilization. If there’s war or famine in the Middle East or Africa it will result in a surge of refugees in Europe. Organized crime and terrorism has become a global problem, whereas before we could just turn a blind eye to the problems in our colonies. The locals could kill our merchants, officials and soldiers but they would never be able to physically reach our own world. Where as we had the monopoly of being able to affect theirs. Those days are over now. The game has changed. The game has changed and can most dramatically be remembered through those dramatic events on 9/11/2001 when a group of terrorists set to harm the financial center of the world in NYC, NY, USA. Air traffic in America was shut down for days and the financial center of the world closed. Functionally it shook the world during those dramatic days, paralyzing the world finances. With humble means a few terrorists had achieved this. Security regulations had to be changed and most fundamentally we all were changed. We woke up into the realization that a small terrorist groups from the other side of the world had reached us in such a terrifying way. So America along with her allies set out to straighten that terrorist haven in the Middle East. N.A.T.O. mounted on two massive military campaigns in the Middle East to Afghanistan and Iraq.

This was over ten years ago. And we can now look at Afghanistan as a costly venture, both in human life and in resources. A mighty military force set out to social engineer a society near the middle age standards. We thought that we could somehow overnight, through physical military force convert a black terrorist hole into a moderate western liberal democratic society. This was a terrible mistake. Afghanistan is by no means a stable western liberal democratic society today. There’s a Karzai regime in Kabul (which has not even been elected out yet). And the humble ‘’talibans’’ are still keeping the fight on because they have the will power. Now these offensive wars are turning into a general withdrawal because the western world is no longer willing to sacrifice more human lives and resources onto this unfutile and expensive venture. The western world is in an economic crisis so the people are losing interest to sacrifice more resources on these sorts of costly ventures. Thus victory over night will not be possible in Afghanistan or Iraq. ISAF is preparing for a general withdrawal. And there are great doubts the Kabul regime will manage to keep the country intact without western help. The Taliban’s have played the long game successfully so far. What did we learn by this daring venture? Perhaps that it’s not possible to overnight physically social engineer a poor agricultural country into something that it’s not (a liberal democratic society). A people must want to be something and then realize its capacity and environment to achieve its goal. If a country lacks the functional means to become a liberal democratic country it also fails to become one. And the enviorment also plays its role. But what is perhaps the most important part is the desire. You get far with desire but you get no where without it.

America has already learned from its costly social engineering mistake. Moving into a more intelligence (secret service) based strategy along with its Special Forces and drones. These are the new precisement instruments which are designed to surgically destroy terrorist organizations. How far can America go with this strategy? It will of course challenge the concept of human rights. But the new approach to combat global terrorism seems to be working far better than a clumsy attempt to social engineer a whole country. Will wars abroad be incresingly delegated to the local people as we have seen in Libya? The Libyan war was actually quite a show case of a new war strategy. Where the superior west gave the means (weapons, resources and air force) to a revolt willing to topple the Gaddaffi regime. Minimal western resources were spent to topple that regime!

Other high profile terrorist attacks:

- Madrid 2004
- London 2005
- Norway 2011

The reasons for the 9/11 attacks and Norway attacks were criticism agaisnt globalization. However in Norway the attacker seemed to have operated alone which was not the case in 9/11/01 attacks.