Search this site

	Tools
Text-only version
Send it to a friend
Save story

Audio: Oct 24

Fiction roundup: Oct 24

Non-fiction roundup: Oct 24

Audio: Oct 23

Review: Selected Works by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Fiction: Oct 23

Et cetera: Oct 23

Picture books: Oct 23

Science fiction: Oct 23

We are in a mess. The world's resources are disappearing; global warming will shortly have us canoeing to work; hope for an international order based on the rule of law is disappearing; the gap between the world's rich and poor is widening; and much of the West is littered with radioactive junk. Globalisation and a military revolution have combined to power a worldwide insurgency with al-Qaeda in its vanguard. It's a wonder any of us get out of bed in the morning.

Dan Plesch explains the mess we are in like a doctor with extremely bad news. Globalisation, he says, marks not 'the end of history' but the beginning of a unified human story. Unfortunately, it will be a short story with a tragic ending unless we follow his remedy.

The Plesch prescription comprises a large dose of idealism washed down with pragmatism. So his strategy draws on the 'millennium goals' agreed by the United Nations in 2000 - prosperity, security, justice and so on - but also on the British army's doctrine for counterinsurgency warfare. The latter, formulated by General Frank Kitson in the 1970s, insists that 'there can be no such thing as a purely military solution because insurgency is not primarily a military activity'. Instead, Kitson said, success requires various key elements, including good intelligence, a high degree of co-ordination of any overall plan, the creation of a favourable political atmosphere allowing the redress of legitimate grievances and a strict adherence to the law by 'the imperial power'. Read that list carefully. Then think about the strategy so far pursued in 'the war on terror'.

Most of the book is taken up with careful policy suggestions. They include greater accountability of big business (largely through the restriction of corporations' current limited legal liability), the strengthening of global democracy by having directly elected representatives on global bodies, enforcing existing arms reduction treaties and, most critically, a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

The latter can be achieved within two decades, Plesch argues. Once done, we will be free of our dependence on Gulf oil (and nuclear power), free of the threat of global warming and able to tackle the root causes of modern Islamic militancy in the Middle East while also denying terrorists the 'nightmare scenario' targets of the power infrastructure. This is clearly a no-brainer. I doubt Bush or Blair will read this book, but they should.