Social integration and expansion in anarchistic systems
A series of problems and challenges we are confronted with concern poverty, environmental degradation, failed states, war and terrorism, etc.
As I explained in a previous post, failed states, population growth and terrorism – security issues – are closely related phenomena.
A society qualifies as a living system (a subject/perspective I will discuss in more detail in the future), and consists of four closely related, complementary and interacting subsystems or domains (that can be compared at a more abstract level with ‘organs’).
These four subsystems are responsible for fulfilling the basic requirements of societies and its ‘parts’ (like individual humans and communities) to ensure their survival.
Human needs – basic requirements – are not ‘static’ and evolve. The evolution of basic needs also contributes to the dynamics of the System. However, despite the evolution of human needs, basically they stay the same. We need wifi for our social media; a need closely related to identity and sense-making.
Politicians – we – must urgently focus on reorganizing the international order through consultation, not war. Currently tensions rise and issues accumulate in the System; it is just a matter of time before a small incident triggers a massive response of the System.
During the period 1495-1945, the System produced four accelerating and highly consistent war cycles. Certain key-properties of these war cycles developed very consistently, as I show and explain in my research.
The security dilemma at display.
President Trump of the United States has caused enormous damage to American interests: Trump has systematically undermined his (domestic) political reputation and the already fragile international order. His positive achievements are meagre; a fact his bragging cannot disguise.
In the book “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to war in 1914”, historian Christopher Clark argues that in 1914, we – the decision makers at the time – unknowingly and unintentionally ‘sleepwalked’ into the First World War.
This is observation is not correct.
The intense rivalries between the United Kingdom and France during the period 1657-1763 impacted on the severity and life-span of the second war cycle (1648-1815) and the development of the System. The question is if – and how – the intense rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union during the period 1953-1991 – the Cold War – will impact on the next systemic war.
Because of ‘Mutual Assured Destruction‘ and the fact that rational state-actors controlled nuclear capabilities, war was not a rational instrument of policy during the Cold War (1953-1991). The Cold War ‘froze’ the System (photo).
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) studied the force of gravity. Understanding the law of gravity allows us to build spectaculair architectural structures and fly to the moon (and back). It is about time historians and international relations theorist also adopt a more scientific method, and new (and spectaculair) possibilities will present themselves.
