Latest Knoxville News Sentinel column: "Feeling insecure about global security? No need."
Sunday, March 26, 2006 at 8:05AM Tom's latest column is up over at the KNS:
Feel insecure about global security? No needBy THOMAS P.M. BARNETT
March 26, 2006We have never lived in a more peaceful world than we do today — never.
I know that statement goes against everything you've been told by the mass media, and I realize it contradicts the amazing climate of fear that's gripped this country since 9/11.
But it's absolutely true.Our world today is more crowded than it's ever been, and yet we've never had a smaller percentage of humanity either engaging in or preparing for mass violence. We're not entering an age of perpetual war, as some would have it. Instead, we're moving into the century that will feature more peace than any before it...
Tom's comment:
This was my first attempt at doing a data-heavy piece, and the typical columnist trick of essentially blogging somebody else's cool report. Most of the work came in reading the report. Writing the piece was pretty easy.I expanded the byline a bit this time by listing the blog as well. Not sure how the hard copy read, but hard to beat the hot links to this site.
Reader Comments (4)
James Dobbins from Rand said the same thing about a more peaceful world today. He did not say where he got the data, but it is easy to find on the Rand web site. Here is a cut-and-paste from the article and the link:
http://www.rand.org/commentary/021006UPI.html
Bosnia, Kosovo, Namibia, El Salvador, Mozambique, Cambodia, East Timor, Sierra Leone and Liberia are all at peace today because American, NATO, or United Nations peacekeeping troops and civilian experts intervened to separate combatants, enforce ceasefires, and help build democratic systems.
In most cases, these democratic systems have continued to function even after the peacekeepers left. As a result, over the past decade the number of civil wars being waged around the world has been cut in half. The number of refugees, displaced persons and innocent casualties has been cut by an even greater proportion. Contrary to the impression left by daily bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan, the world as a whole is a lot safer place today than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago.
Unfortunately, the link to Dr. Barnett's blog in the on-line article at the KNS is messed up. They accidentally included the sentence-ending period in the URL, which results in a "not found" error when readers attempt to visit the blog.
Tom: would you sell gold and oil, which are rallying on the back of geo-political worries? Would you buy stocks? Given your optimistic views (which I share for the most part), perhaps you should. It would be interesting to know.
Great article Tom, really! What you left out is why times seem worse than they are: we are constantly bombarded by a 24 hr-sensation seeking news media, which makes things seem worse than they are, and likes it that way.