VIRTUAL STATES
New global political climate breeds imaginary nations
OSCAR KILLIAN OPINIONS EDITOR
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Observations
The above is a rough sketch of Ikenberry's seven elements of the new face of American foreign policy.
Most modern Americans are familiar with some of its obvious manifestations, such as the Patriot Act and preemptive wars.
The concept itself of a virtual state though presents us with some interesting food for thought.
Kropotkin described the urge of a state as a concept to destroy anything resembling a "state within a state," and the US has not disappointed.
Granted, in this case the state has more to fear than lack of control; namely terrorism.
One must wonder why a person would so internalize the form of a government though as to create a landless state, but in the modern paradigm the protection of ideas and philosophies are possibly more important than the land divisions that presumably originally necessitated the creation of nations.
The post-modern man is presented with an interesting, unique opportunity: a choice between real and virtual states.
The choice of course is not individual but collective, and only time will tell the direction the world will take.
The reason "terrorist cells" are such a threat to landed nations is that they were designed specifically to exploit the weaknesses in government's law enforcement by having no linear chain of command or need for it.
In doing so they lack any single point to attack or hierarchy to climb in order to behead the organization of its leadership. Depending on which side wins the coming conflict, such an organization may be the only viable arrangement.
They don't have to be composed of radical, fundamentalist terrorists. Food Not Bombs is an attempt at a decentralized non-hierarchical organization, but its only goal is to distribute free food.
Most modern Americans are familiar with some of its obvious manifestations, such as the Patriot Act and preemptive wars.
The concept itself of a virtual state though presents us with some interesting food for thought.
Kropotkin described the urge of a state as a concept to destroy anything resembling a "state within a state," and the US has not disappointed.
Granted, in this case the state has more to fear than lack of control; namely terrorism.
One must wonder why a person would so internalize the form of a government though as to create a landless state, but in the modern paradigm the protection of ideas and philosophies are possibly more important than the land divisions that presumably originally necessitated the creation of nations.
The post-modern man is presented with an interesting, unique opportunity: a choice between real and virtual states.
The choice of course is not individual but collective, and only time will tell the direction the world will take.
The reason "terrorist cells" are such a threat to landed nations is that they were designed specifically to exploit the weaknesses in government's law enforcement by having no linear chain of command or need for it.
In doing so they lack any single point to attack or hierarchy to climb in order to behead the organization of its leadership. Depending on which side wins the coming conflict, such an organization may be the only viable arrangement.
They don't have to be composed of radical, fundamentalist terrorists. Food Not Bombs is an attempt at a decentralized non-hierarchical organization, but its only goal is to distribute free food.
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