In another reposted blog for the CDA Institute, original here, David Law responds thoughtfully to a question posed by the World Economic Forum, a question that all readers should seriously consider given its implications. Hopefully this post will serve as the beginning of a much larger discussion about our future – not just Canada’s, but the world’s – from a security and defence perspective.
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Global Futures and their Underlying Drivers
March 22, 2018
This blog is an input – revised – for a discussion on the TOPLINK platform of the World Economic Forum in response to the following question –
What do you think are the most impactful yet uncertain drivers shaping our future?
There are several. If we look at the short- to mid-term, however, the key issue is the relationship between the powers that have been largely responsible for creating the post-Second World War order and those that are challenging it.
In which direction this stand-off is moving should become clear within the next five to ten years, perhaps much sooner. There are essentially three ways things may evolve:
- One is that the current Western-dominated paradigm, weakened because of internal and external challenges, manages to overcome its difficulties and creates space and energy for a renewed democratic revolution, in the process forging an environment in which the challenging powers can be successfully encouraged to integrate. Call this LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM RENEWED, a revamped version of the paradigm that prevailed after the end of the Cold War.
- A second has the challengers of the Western-led paradigm – primarily, but not exclusively, Russia and China – succeeding in taking advantage of its contradictions to more or less peacefully establish the basis for the multi-polar world they have been militating for. Call this TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CONCERT after the nineteenth century Concert of Nations.
- A third resembles the second but with one crucial difference. The rise of the multi-polarists turns violent, characterized by spiralling patterns of conflict that encompass ever greater regions of the world. The resulting situation is similar to the strategic free-for-all that prevailed as the aforementioned Concert of Nations weakened and inter-state conflict increased and got out of hand. Call this GEOSTRATEGIC MELTDOWN, a new period of global conflict.
As for the factors driving these developments, the key ones would seem to be five in number:
- The first factor concerns the economic viabilityof the main protagonists – whether their economic model continues to engender sufficient wealth to maintain their programmes of hard and soft power.
- The second factor relates to whether these states will succeed in reducing the inequality gap among their citizens. The existence of this gap spans borders around the world, but is particularly significant among the states that are the main protagonists in shaping the emerging world order.
- The third factor has to do with the competing countries’ governance capacity. Are the democratic states that have traditionally exercised governance leadership relinquishing this role? Will authoritarian states prove capable of fashioning a new paradigm, based on a political monopoly of the ruling group but in a position to lead society effectively, owing to their prowess in mastering cutting-edge technological paradigms? Or will the world end up with a new kind of democratic paradigm, quite different from what we have known in recent decades but sufficiently similar to still be considered part of the democratic genre?
- Then there is the possibility of a military breakthrough, one that could convince the leadership of one or the other states that it was in a position to stave off other challengers and/or take a strategic risk in challenging the prevailing system. Think submarines in the First World War and nuclear weapons in the Second.
- The wild card moving forward is about how key states in the international community will address the growing environmental challenges that all face. A less-than rigorous response to the environmental realities of our times will increase the likelihood that a serious climatic contingency will intervene, relegating traditional strategic considerations to a position of lesser importance or alternatively combining with them to create strategic challenges of a new order.
~ David M. Law
