World order inching towards doom

At the look of things, 2014 ranks among the worst of years. The world seems to have collapsed under the weight of totalitarianism, be it under the States or the non-State powerful terrorist organisations in Asia and Africa. It also faces the worst intrusions by trans-national corporations (TNCs) into national sovereignties. Failing economies of Africa and the European Union are creating threats. The world economy is enmeshed in global politics of conflicts and wars. As nations meet to continue with their establishments, non-State actors tend to destroy them.

In a queer turn of events, States such as Pakistan that supported non-State actors have become their victims. The year has left the world with difficult questions. Should China fight tiny Japan and Vietnam for areas which have little economic significance? Should the US send its people to kill people across the world? Should Russia send troops to Ukraine? Are Russia and Ukraine suffering from insecurity? Is Africa succumbing from Stateless Somalia run by pirates to Boko Haram terrorists out to destroy Nigeria and neighbouring African countries? Are regional groupings like the BRICS,ASEAN or SAARC the new order? Is not the most insecure US destabilising nations and economies through currency war across the world?

The world has become more complex despite fall in oil prices.

The poor people of India or rest of the world know it has not happened because oil-rich OPEC countries wanted to reduce the price. This is another shadow war the US plays by increasing its oil production to the level
of almost Saudi Arabia. It is a disturbed world. Many parts of northern Africa, - Egypt, Sudan, Libya or Central Africa – Nigeria, Somalia and Ivory Coast remain in turmoil. The US and European intervention in many of these countries and Iraq, Middle East or Central Asia have increased conflicts.

International institutions such as the UN system or Bretton Woods institutions have become ineffective. Inflation is transferred globally to destabilise and take political control of economies through luring talks. Each nation is specializing in ways to hurt the economy of the other in a supposedly interdependent world.

Technology has shrunk the world. Instead of it ensuring global good governance, it takes cyber threats to the bedrooms of individuals, where they are robbed of their bank accounts, blackmailed and suffer crimes and terrorism. The cyber system is leading to the collapse of the structured States and their economies. Illegal transferring of money by cyber traders or taxi operators for legal operations in a State has become the norm. It changes world economic and security dynamics as money trail becomes invisible.

Gun-running, drugs and cyber piracy are creating parallel economies within and outside national boundaries. No wonder Prime Minister Narendra Modi discusses it eloquently. It makes the most prosperous Indian State, Punjab for its drugs problem and the poorest West Bengal for emerging as terrorist hub, quiver. Indian ambitions of becoming hub of economy could be achieved if the Indian Ocean rim is managed more efficiently.

Modi has started that foreign politics because he knows this is not only true about issues across the seas but also important about domestic governance. Indian economy, more stable than year ago, is looking for a lasting solution. It requires deft diplomacy, better internal governance, TNC and corporate management, tough handling of non-State ultras and expertise in countering cyber intrusion and invasion. India has to look beyond the traditional. It has to create institutions – may be a new avatar of Planning Commission - that could take holistic look from the global and local - global – angle.

The economy now is more a strategic issue. Modi has the advantage of starting without baggage. He has to get rid of Manmohanomics and create a new economic order in a holistic manner to give the country an edge in terms of sustainable agriculture, jobs, ecology and a thriving system that leads not only its people but at least the people of Asia and Indian Ocean rim. He has to reset the button on the world.

By: Shivaji Sarkar