July 27, 2014

  • A New Age of Strife: The return of the Nation-State

    Having spent some recent days reading about the movements of hearts and minds that resulted in the Great War, it seems reasonable to reflect on the stirrings that we see around us today, from ISIS, to Palestine/Israel/Gaza, and issues with Ukraine, as well as Kurdish peoples... Heck, to a large extent Africa as well.

    In very broad strokes, I think we're reaching a thawing of the quasi stability that came to be after the great wars between the european powers in WWI and II, the establishment of relative pre-eminence of the USSR and USA, and the number of proxy wars and detentes that came to be between them.

    As should be common knowledge, a great number of "treaty countries" came to exist after other nations that had occupied or colonized the area stepped back, and created new amalgams ex fiat. Czechoslovakia, Nigeria are two prominent examples, but the division of kurdish lands and peoples amongst several other geographic regions certainly can be traced back to treaties signed by nations without intimate knowledge or interest in the wellfare of those so consigned.

    As these influences fade, and the interests, power and attentions of declining powers move from these spheres, is it any surprise that peoples might begin to foment for more autonomy and self-definition? That's what much of the conflict I see in this current crop of conflicts, a desire to return to a nation-state build of ethnics and or religion.

    The age of amalgamated peoples crested, I think with amalgam identities such as the US, Brasil, USSR, Canada... but there are many smaller groups of identities that are re-asserting those identities, above that of government.

    It's a concept relatively foreign to the US, but one that is all to common around the world.

    Further, in the past, conflict normally continued until subjugation or annihilation, but in the "modern world", intervening interests can "freeze" conflicts, leaving laundry for the next government or leadership change.

    As the chilling/stabilizing influences of a bipolar conflict have ended, multipolar interests now dominate...

    I think the nation-state is back...

    And that will be the theme of this next century.