People ask what is going wrong with the world, with new wars, extreme populist movements, climate breakdown, poverty, inequality and exclusion. There is a sense of unease, that ‘things are falling apart’, which is reflected both in global insecurity; a seeming failure to effectively negotiate or mediate in desperate wars (Ukraine, Sudan. Gaza) and a dismay at social injustice and rising poverty. This short book meets such concerns head-on, analyzing the worsening insecurity trap we are in, and how to get out of it. In the troubled decade that lies ahead, we have the combination of a bitterly divided world facing limits to growth and even climate breakdown. However, this is in a pervasive culture where national governments prioritize a security approach of hard militarism to enforce stability and protect the better off.
Paul Rogers argues that responding to the prospect of ‘a crowded glowering world‘, there are three questions to answer:
Can we come to terms with the environmental limits to growth in time?
Can we transform the world economy to ensure that there is far better sharing of what we have?
Can we change our understanding and practice of international security to focus on a human security approach that works for all, not just a minority elite?