3 Views

3 views I have recently picked up on at the Global Agenda website, where an impressive lineup of world leaders discuss a range of global issues.
* One is a historic view on the rise of Islamic nationalism as an update of 19/20th century Middle East anti-colonialism, by Mahmood Mamdani. Although he starts off well up to the recent US-Afghanistan War, he never really wraps up his argument by its extension to 2005 realities.
* Another is a piece by UN head Kofi Annan, that gives a broad outline of the areas the world should concentrate on. But building on last year's "Our Shared Responsibility" document, the suggestions are broad and non-binding to any party, lessening the forcefulness and immediacy its recommendations otherwise require. Revealingly, p.17 of the document cites Harry Truman with the words "we all have to recognise - no matter how great our strength - that we must deny ourselves the licence to do always as we please". Unfortunately, the current UN and its constituents have already moved beyond that premise and into an all-out brawl of moral denial and finger-pointing. Lack of a political will to search for a common ground for humanity and not for its constituent politicians is the ultimate corruption of the ideal of the United Nations or any future setup, as it was the weak link in the chain that brought down its predecessor, the League of Nations.
* A third is a new take on the world security framework, but based on the security (economic, social, etc.) that we have built up over the last 100 years. A sharp analysis of the Washington view of security and the Neo-Pax Americana, by David Held at the LSE.