Global strife
Long back an expert on international conflicts said something that applies to current state of global affairs perfectly. We prepare for war for fifty years and at the end of it we wish for peace. As Trump presides over the new phenomenon of disorder, a thunderous shaking of the global architecture for cooperation and resolution of contested matters, the world is speedily falling into an abyss of violent contestation. The post world war second arrangement to maintain global peace and order is finally under assault by the same power that contributed majorly to its making. Things seem to have come full circle. Who could have imagines, just some years back, that the USA will lay claim to Greenland in a way as Trump articulated. Who could have imagined that Europe and USA will lock horns and actively drift in opposite direction on an issue that wasn’t an issue at all. The super power, post WWII, that bailed out a devastated post-war Europe, is now challenging the very foundations of political understanding that shaped US-Europe cooperation. With this, the fate of NATO is also coming under dark clouds. What a turn of events, all thanks to Trump!
With a new stitching together of military and economic tapestry one doesn’t know what is in the offing. What can be predicted without any hesitation, and without employing any special wisdom, is that the old institutions are totally insufficient to prevent this falling apart of global order. The formation of new, and multiple, blocks is visible.
First, it was Ukraine that dealt a severe blow to the existing order. Europe and US together locked horns with Russia. The shockwaves from this battle ground disturbed global economy and Europe’s ability to defend its margins came under severe question. Then middle east erupted and a brazen display of military might overran all transnational formats of restrain. Gradually, it reached to this pass that new clouds of war are hovering on the global skies. New markets for war and new wars for market are taking shape. All the wrongs committed during previous decades are accumulating to produce a dynamic of greater disturbance.
