The world as it stands today
When you hear the term Middle-East, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Yes, that’s right — “War”.
War on multiple fronts, with multiple factions and multiple vested interests. There is a war in Syria, one in Yemen and another in Iraq. In all these wars, there are two major parties or sides: Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The whole of Middle-East is trapped in a state of perpetual cold war which nobody knows how to solve. Iran gets involved because it wants to protect its national interests in the region and same is the reason for Saudi. The reason both these countries have to get involved is because there are civil wars emerging out in many countries in the Middle-East post Arab Spring (2011).
Terrorism — ISIS, Al Qaeda — further make the process of negotiation slow and worse.
Refugee crisis
Civil wars like these lead to a loss of life of unimaginable proportions — remember the image of the boy covered in dirt from Syrian civil war which shocked the whole world — and lead to a lot of emigrants or refugees looking for a safe place to live.
Europe, the closest place for most of middle-east refugees to seek help, is turning inward and many politicians want to stop the refugee influx altogether. Even Angela Merkel, who was the champion of refugee intake during earlier years, has taken a conservative stance.
USA has closed its boundaries to any and all Muslims and implemented strict visa procedures. This has led to reduced tourism into the USA in 2017.
West is not alone in refugee crisis. India is in the process of counting the number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in its north-eastern states and reducing there rights. India even refused to take in Rohingya refugees, though they are helping Bangladesh set up refugee camps for rohingyas.
World (ex- Middle East)
Elsewhere, in Turkey, a similar situation exists where the all powerful President is trying to increase his powers to the tunes of pre-world war I autocrats. Similarly in Venezuela, the regime is as unstable as it can be.
In African continent, the recent peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea is a ray of hope but who knows how long until the vested interests kick in and a stalemate occurs.
Looking at all these situations around the globe, the world paints a pretty dull and gloomy picture. Wars raging everywhere, populist far-right political parties (in the developed world) making a run for making government and restoring the good-old glorious country. Even Japan is not free from far-right movements, they too want to restore the pre-WWII Japanese glory.
China, as it stands, with its accumulated wealth wants to increase its influence on the world through various measures — Belt Road Initiative (BRI), naval establishments in Indian Ocean and South Pacific, resource exploitation of Africa, development of hypersonic nuclear missile delivery system (recently) and illegal occupation of South China Sea.
Climate change: Yes or No?
Another scary thing which the world community is worried about — but seems to be doing nothing about it — is “climate change”. Last year recorded a decline in investments in renewable energy while acceleration in traditional fossil fuel investment.
This year is the hottest year on record in Japan’s history (109 degree Fahrenheit). A few frightening facts about climate change include: Alps in Europe are not as snowy as they used to be (now they have to use artificial snow machines), extreme weather events like recurrent floods, cyclones like the one in Porto Rico and receding ice caps at Arctic.
Even the newly formed Global Climate Fund (under Paris Climate Deal, 2015) does not seem to be working. It had a mere $7.2bn of which it spent $158mn on actual projects. The rest? It went away due to bureaucratic inefficiencies of the fund.
Further worrying is the trend that USA — the 2nd largest GHG emitter after China — has pulled out of the Paris deal as it believes it puts undue pressure on USA and its companies. See the irony here?
On top of all this we have problems like income inequality (Piketty’s Capital in 21st Century), privacy rights (in the age of data as currency), trade wars, nuclear disarmament, arms race, space weaponization (USA, China and Russia) among others.
Are we doomed?
Among all these problems comes Steven Pinker’s new book which highlights that human beings have never had it better — longevity, medicine, information, awareness about rights, global connectivity, stability, the number of war and other casualties is at its lowest.
He says we should recognize all the progress we have made, lest it become a source of resent.
So what explains this dichotomy of problems despite so much progress having been made? The idea is same as what Socrates’ idea of wisdom — the more you know the lesser you think you know and the more you want to know. The same thing applies here, when humans have all the luxuries they have, they want to have more of it and more rights. We don’t recognize the fact that wars and suffering that come along with it have been part of human life since our species set foot on this planet.
Looking for solutions
That is not to say that we should let the current wars go on. The only solution to the current war spree in the middle east is three step: first involving collaboration among world powers to end all the terrorist outfits.
Second to negotiate between Iran, Saudi and other contesting parties to establish a clear demarcation of territory and establish neutral states. This is same thing which happened in Treaty of Westphalia (1648) to end the European war on religion.
Third is that middle-eastern countries realize what’s best for their own people and not the few at the top (clergy or presidents/prime-ministers).
Outside aid to these countries can only do so much. Its their own will to establish a peace and prosperous middle east when the development will happen and people will stop looking to the glorious past to wage wars.
We need to make the states party to the treaty abide by them and place strict sanctions otherwise. For this its needed that the third party be as neutral as possible and should itself abide by the treaty (unlike USA pulling out of Iran deal without any significant proof).
Next, to solve climate change and all the other issues we need strong international institutions which realize new realities of the world instead of the WWII scenario with the P5 holding all the power. Current situation of UN, WTO and other institutions is the same as League of Nations. Major nations choose to do as they please. If there is no regulating body for global relations then the new world order is going to be chaotic.
We must, therefore, reform and strengthen our global institutions. We must also come together as nations to solve the inevitable crisis of global warming or else be ready for rising sea levels (8 inch in the last century), rising temperature, erratic weather pattern, huge loss to life and property and others.
We need to increase funding of institutions which can develop technologies for a better renewable future. The world spends close to $1.5trn on military every year (SIPRI, 2017), and close to $60bn on space exploration every year (2017).
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
If we channel even half of the military spending on climate change, it can do wonders. Further the private sector can divert its CSR funds towards renewable resources. People like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates can donate to these causes.
In the end its our and the only one we have got. We have to decide what we want to do with it and decide fast. Because time is slipping and if we don’t do anything our future generations will only have us to blame. In the end what the world needs is what Elvis Presley says in his hit song:
“A little less conversation, a little more action please”
