With the Greek financial crisis and the possible termination
of that nation’s membership in the ill-defined European Union,[1] the
state of the international order is precarious at best. Gone is the relatively stable, albeit
dangerous, international arena of the Cold War.
The great powers are presently losing their ability to establish order
and that includes the United States. So
says international relations expert, Randall L. Schweller, in his recently
published book, Maxwell’s Demon And the Golden
Apple: Global Discord in the New Millennium.[2] That world of international actors seems to
be spiraling into chaos or, at least, a more chaotic state. While I must admit my lack of expertise in
this area, it is one civics teachers should address. Schweller’s book is a source that can assist
teachers in that effort.
This increasing chaos is a newer sort of disruption. Despite the tensions between Russia and the
Western democracies over Ukraine and the Baltic states – where Russia is making
noises of expansion over stated perceptions of NATO expansion – Schweller does
not foresee war between super powers as likely.
What Schweller is more concerned about is the entropy of power due to
the array of international actors that now dot that landscape. Added to this is the deterioration of US
hegemony in relation to these actors. He
describes this condition as: “erratic,
unsettled, and devoid of behavioral regularities.” (p. ix) His description includes:
… new actors – regional and global
organizations, local militias, global crime and terrorist networks,
nongovernmental organizations, and large corporations – are emerging to compete
with states, each exerting a different kind of power …[3]
On a recent car trip, I listened to a BBC broadcast in which
a woman was being interviewed. She
described how she, here in the US, was lured into believing the propaganda of
ISIS. Apparently, ISIS operatives have
become quite skilled in using social media platforms to establish intimate
relations with would-be converts, preying on the subjects’ insecurities and
social isolations. As described, these
efforts, seemed quite sophisticated. We
do know that terrorist groups have been able to recruit significant numbers of
fighters for their aggressions in Syria and Iraq. The array of volunteers does not fit a simple
profile. There are the social misfits,
but there are also those who seem to have been leading successful lives. Motivations among these recruits vary and
this, in turn, makes addressing the problem that more difficult. In any event, civics teachers should be concerned
that before them might be potential converts to fundamentalist allure of Islamic
extremists as well as extremists of other persuasions. Included in this list of potential recruiters
can be hate groups or extreme ideologically-bent groups. What seems to be losing its grip is the
uniting force provided by nation-state legitimacy, at least, in relative terms.
Perceived dysfunction among state entities does not mean only
a lack of satisfactory governmental services.
Dysfunction of this type creates vacuums – political vacuums – and these
will be filled. How? The case of chaotic forces as described above
can and, in the extreme, will demonstrate how those vacuums will be filled.
[1]
Ill-defined in that the union has limited
governmental authority in financial matters.
The Union has no central bank, for example.
[2]
Schweller, R. L.
(2014). Maxwell’s demon and the golden apple:
Global discord in the new millennium. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. For a informative review of this book see Kirshner,
J. (2015). Book review.
Political Science Quarterly,
130 (1), Spring, pp. 133-134.
[3]
Ibid., p. 55.
