The aftermath of an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on the Yemeni capital Sana’a.
Photograph: Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images
We
live in a world of trouble. Conflicts today may be much less lethal
than those that scarred the last century, but this brings little
comfort. We remain deeply anxious. We can blame terrorism and the fear
it inspires despite the statistically unimportant number of casualties
it inflicts, or the contemporary media and the breathless cycle of
“breaking news”, but the truth remains that the wars that seem to
inspire the fanatics or have produced so many headlines in recent years
prompt deep anxiety. One reason is that these wars appear to have no end
in sight.
To explain these conflicts we reach for easy binary schema – Islam v
the west; haves against have-nots; nations that “play by the rules” of
the international system against “rogues”. We also look to grand
geopolitical theories – the end of the Westphalian system, the west
faced by “the rise of the rest” – or even just attribute the violence to
“geography”. None of these explanations seems to adequately allay our
concerns.
No comments:
Post a Comment