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?
