The world is increasingly weaving a diplomatic web in which nations find themselves haplessly and unwittingly insnared. One such web in recent years has been the buttressing of long standing alliances by the incorporation of new members.
Examples of these organizations are the European Union
and NATO as well as fragile and tenuous military coalitions.
Additionally, the world has witnessed the re-emergence of a bygone
world superpower, Russia. We watch as she flexes her atrophied political muscles while she surreptitiously annexes the former now sovereign territories. Perhaps most
insidious is the appearance of rouge political-military organizations
like ISIS which has precipitated negotiations between ideologically
disparate nations.
Although nothing has officially been
verified, Iran and Saudi Arabia seem to have mended diplomatic fences
as the treat of ISIS encroaches on Asia Minor. A stellar example of
the rhetorical adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
This layered overlap of alliances,
which muddied any clear, workable partnership, is essentially what
sparked WW1 back in the summer of 1914. Unceremoniously we marked the
centennial this year and the world seems to be asleep at the wheel as
a similar landscape of uncertainty unfolds.
Pope Francis warned of just such a
scenario as he laid a wreath at the foot of a monument in Italy
commemorates soldiers who died during the First World War. Then as
now the geopolitical landscape seems to be astride a powder keg as
the world attempts to keep the emerging flash points at a distance.
Lessons should have been learned from
the First World War as the world again 100 years later stands on the
precipice of a protracted and seemingly unending military engagement.
Here follows two priorities which should to be addressed in order to
keep the geopolitical community from the mistakes a century ago.
One: NATO needs to redefine its
mandate. The organization has become so convoluted and antithetical
in regards to its original charter. Not only are there landlocked
nations which are member states but most of the NATO members are not
even bordering the Atlantic Ocean. When the Soviet Union collapsed so
to did the Warsaw Pact nations along with their collective military
alliance. To fill the void of uncertainty, the Western democracies
expanded their membership ranks to include these developing or
emerging Eastern European democracies. Delving farther back in
history, this tactic was employed by the Roman Empire in order to
pacify an uncertain unity which was forged between Rome and the
peoples just beyond the Empire's border.
Two: The western nations should
reconsider their role in brokering temporary peace between
historically hostile governments. Utilizing a venn diagram technique
to do a risk-benefit analysis on the effectiveness of loose alliances
will not solve systemic problems. It's often an arduous task to sift
through the hallow rhetoric of politicians. Yet, when they pepper
their speeches with phrases like “protecting our (western)
interests” , it usually means cheap natural resources or cheap
labor. Rethinking and retooling our involvement in centuries old
ideological debates along with rethinking and retooling our
dependence on the protection of cheap natural resources and cheap
labor, is where we should be investing our diplomatic energies.
