Connectivity Wars: Why Migration, Finance and Trade are the Geo-Economic Battlegrounds of the Future (2016), a book edited by Mark Leonard, is published by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the book can be downloaded for free here.
The book contains a collection of essays that explore how warfare is being carried out at present globally. As Leonard says in the introduction: "The most important battleground of this conflict will not be the air or the ground but rather the interconnected infrastructure of the global economy: disrupting trade and investment, international law, the internet, transport links, and the movement of the people."
Before 1914, the world was a considerably globalized place. Leonard writes: "In 1914, globalization collapsed because the world's most powerful nations went to war. A hundred years later, it is the reluctance of the great powers to engage in all-out war that could precipitate a new unravelling of the global economy."
It was hoped that the hyper-connectivity that was spreading through the world would result in an era of peace and prosperity, "But," writes Leonard, "contrary to what many hoped and some believed, this burgeoning of connections between countries has not buried the tensions between them. The power struggles of the geopolitical era persist, but in a new form. In fact, the very things that connected the world are now being used as weapons - what brought us together is now driving us apart."
I particularly liked James Rickards' article "Currency Wars Without End" (check out my reviews of James Rickards' Currency Wars and The Death of Money) in which he argues that there is no difference between the economies of the socially liberal United States and the liberalizing socialist China in terms of state intervention. As he puts it, "We are all socialists now." In this article Rickards goes on to predict a collapse of the international monetary system.
Another article that was interesting was James Reilly's "China: Turning Money Into Power" which showed how China pursued an economic statecraft strategy with the "selective application of economic incentives and punishments designed to bolster Beijing's diplomacy".
Altogether this is a timely book that clearly shows the power moves that are taking place presently on the global stage and in which India appears to be more or less a pawn.
The book contains a collection of essays that explore how warfare is being carried out at present globally. As Leonard says in the introduction: "The most important battleground of this conflict will not be the air or the ground but rather the interconnected infrastructure of the global economy: disrupting trade and investment, international law, the internet, transport links, and the movement of the people."
Before 1914, the world was a considerably globalized place. Leonard writes: "In 1914, globalization collapsed because the world's most powerful nations went to war. A hundred years later, it is the reluctance of the great powers to engage in all-out war that could precipitate a new unravelling of the global economy."
It was hoped that the hyper-connectivity that was spreading through the world would result in an era of peace and prosperity, "But," writes Leonard, "contrary to what many hoped and some believed, this burgeoning of connections between countries has not buried the tensions between them. The power struggles of the geopolitical era persist, but in a new form. In fact, the very things that connected the world are now being used as weapons - what brought us together is now driving us apart."
I particularly liked James Rickards' article "Currency Wars Without End" (check out my reviews of James Rickards' Currency Wars and The Death of Money) in which he argues that there is no difference between the economies of the socially liberal United States and the liberalizing socialist China in terms of state intervention. As he puts it, "We are all socialists now." In this article Rickards goes on to predict a collapse of the international monetary system.
Another article that was interesting was James Reilly's "China: Turning Money Into Power" which showed how China pursued an economic statecraft strategy with the "selective application of economic incentives and punishments designed to bolster Beijing's diplomacy".
Altogether this is a timely book that clearly shows the power moves that are taking place presently on the global stage and in which India appears to be more or less a pawn.
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