because corporate interests and powerful
A World Without A
Moral Guidepost?
By Ian Bremmer
On Describing The Age We Live In
Today
Today, we are living in a global political
order that has become unmoored from
when the underlying trend was toward
U.S.-led globalization. We have much less
of a single moral guidepost.
Were losing some of our moral
sensibilities and perhaps more
importantly, its a world where leaders will
find it increasingly difficult to act on the
sensibilities they do have. Its not in any
sense a matter of good and evil; rather, its
a world where emerging markets matter a
lot more over the past five years they
have provided two-thirds of global
economic growth but they carry starkly
different priorities from developed states.
After all, even if developing countries are
the drivers of global growth, they are still
relatively poor. That means they pay
relatively less attention to Western values
that they dont have the luxury of
prioritizing: things like human rights and
environmental standards. As a result, we
are living in a world where global policy is
less ethically driven than at any other point
since World War II.
On Whether Things Are Getting Better
Or Worse
Im a political scientist. Looking at the
geopolitical environment, the world is
getting decidedly riskier. We have less
order. Governments are less willing or
able to respond to global crises.
While emerging markets are bringing
many new citizens into the ranks of the
global middle class, this positive trend
comes alongside a growing gap between
rich and poor around the world.
Unfortunately, this trend isnt liable to
reverse itself in the foreseeable future
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individuals have a hold on power, formal
and informal, as well as on many of the
wealth-creating technologies that will
create an outsized degree of global
prosperity in years to come.
Related to the growing disparity of wealth,
we are seeing the legitimacy of the worlds
political elites wane. Social inequality, poor
spending decisions and a perception that
leaders are ineffectual combined with
broad popular access to information,
social media and politicized rhetoric are
undermining trust in governments the
world over. The bottom line: it broadens
prospects for conflict within and between
countries.
On Differences In Ethical Positions
Most differences in the world ultimately
come down to differences on ethical
questions. What are your values and how
do you prioritize them?
On top of the ethical questions that come
with nations varying stages of
development, there are other concerns
that shape ethical priorities. Everyone
would value a world that did not have
rogue states with nuclear weapons. But
the relative priority of that compared to,
say, being able to get oil from a country, or
maintaining stability on your border with a
neighbor those priorities will change.
Those are ethical distinctions, and ethical
distinctions are ones that well have a
particularly hard time compromising on.
On Moral Leadership
Moral leadership to me means taking the
long-term perspective for your own
citizens rather than relying on short-term
fixes and a kick the can strategy that
results in larger problems for your
successor. Its also important not to take a
long-term perspective that is too self-
centered or nationalistic it should come
in conjunction with whats best for the rest
of the world wherever possible.
On The Definition Of A Global Ethic
The idea of a global ethic increasingly
does not resonate with me precisely
because we increasingly cant do global.
Climate change is the most obvious and
far-reaching global challenge that we face.
Short of being invaded by aliens, its hard
to come up with a more comprehensive
threat that just about every country would
like to solve. We have had major climate
summits now in Copenhagen and in
Durban and in Cancn, and they have
accomplished absolutely nothing. How
many more global summits do we need to
have before we realize that its not the
geography that derails negotiations its
just that we simply cant agree?
What we need is a next-best solution. That
next-best solution will be a coalition of the
willing. It will be a smaller group of like-
minded countries providing piecemeal
solutions that beat the alternative no
progress whatsoever in the face of a
monumental challenge.
On The Greatest Ethical Challenge
Facing The Planet
The greatest ethical challenge that the
planet has is distribution of scarce
resources. That means across countries,
and that means within countries.
I think one of the places that this will
become most interesting is with regards to
the data revolution. It empowers small
numbers of individuals that have access to
extraordinary concentrations of data and
can use that for purposes of profit and for
national security. That will be an enormous
ethical challenge that is just on the
horizon.
On World Issues That Are Being
Ignored
The potential for Chinas relationship with
the United States to deteriorate
dramatically is an enormous risk. Its
bigger than anything else out there. We
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are not spending enough time dealing with
that issue.
On World Peace
Sure, world peace is absolutely possible;
unfortunately, its just overwhelmingly
remote for the foreseeable future.
You tend to get wars when you do not
trust, when you do not understand. Its not
just fighting over scarce resources. Its
when you come at it from different
perspectives and therefore cant
compromise.
We are seeing a world where powerful
countries increasingly have those kinds of
differences. But the world need not go in
that direction ad infinitum.
On Who Is Accountable
Ultimately the United States is
accountable. The United States is the
worlds largest economy, its by far the
wealthiest economy of any nations of
scale, it has world-beating technology in
all of the key areas of cutting-edge
innovation, the best institutions of higher
learning by a large margin and the worlds
strongest military. Yes, some of these
relative strengths are eroding, but they are
still substantial and will remain so for a
considerable span.
When you are in a position of such
exorbitant strength compared to other
countries, that comes with responsibility.
With strength comes responsibility. With
responsibility comes accountability.
On Whether Technology Will Boost
Trust
It depends. I think if technology continues
in the last few years it has really, as I
said, empowered small numbers of folks
that have access to huge data. If that
trend continues, technology will undermine
trust.
Is the United States more empowered or
less in terms of national security by the
move from conventional weaponry to
cyber? In 10 years time, America might be
able to knock everything out of the sky.
This could actually super-empower the
United States. Thats very dangerous for
individual trust because that doesnt have
to be used responsibly.
But it might also be that cyber security
completely undermines the United States
because small numbers of individuals can
just bring down things. We dont know yet.
Thats an interesting debate. Were not
ready to have it.
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This post was produced by The Huffington
Post and Carnegie Council for Ethics in
International Affairs as part of the
Councils Centennial Thought Leaders
Forum. The series features thought
leaders answering questions posed by
Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Devin
Stewart. For more information about the
Carnegie Council, click here.
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