A World Divided

Sep 24, 2020

The world’s a mess.  The great powers today, the Chinese and the Americans, seem to disagree on most things. In this episode, Robin Niblett looks for answers.

Dr Robin Niblett CMG has led Chatham House since January 2007. Previously he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) from 2001 to 2006.
During his last two years at CSIS, he also served as director of the CSIS Europe Program and its Initiative for a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership.

He is a frequent panellist at conferences and events around the world and has testified on a number of occasions to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as US Senate and House of Representatives committees on European Affairs.

He received his BA, MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University.


The world’s a mess.  The great powers today, the Chinese and the Americans, seem to disagree on most things. The UK has left the EU and the Europeans are split North against South, East against West. China’s pushing its neighbors. Russia’s pecking at Europe’s borders. Although each of those has its own story, is there something more fundamental going on? Are the geopolitical tectonic plates shifting?

In this episode of New Thinking for a New World Alan Stoga looks for answers from Robin Niblett, who has led Chatham House, one of the world’s premier think tanks, since 2007 and is an expert on British, European and American foreign policies.

Let us know what YOU think and leave a comment below

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6 Comments

  1. Eman Elbadawi

    I am going to comment in poetry:

    Ah, love, let us be true
    To one another! for the world, which seems
    To lie before us like a land of dreams,
    So various, so beautiful, so new,
    Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
    Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
    And we are here as on a darkling plain
    Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
    Where ignorant armies clash by night.

    from Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

    Reply
    • Pouchon Alexis

      One world from one people.

      Reply
  2. Brian R. Tan

    I think the world needs a better way of thinking. I know that this statement might seem like a generic statement that cannot be exercised and implemented, but that’s actually not true (at least not anymore). The current approach of thinking and education is primarily intelligence based (even skill based learning is centered on intelligence). Intelligence based approaches are problematic because they are narrow approaches (by definition, and fragmented) that does not allow entities to view things from a common lens. A wisdom based approach would enable us to do this, except, arguably, no one has figured out how to teach wisdom (actually, I believe I have, arguably). A wisdom based approach builds on fundamental logic that can transcend fields of disciplines, and takes the axiom “knowledge is universal” and applies this axiom into thinking that allows us to build on these fundamental truths. I know that this sounds incredulous simply because it hasn’t been done yet or figured out (again, I reiterate that this is no longer true). Since a discussion on how it will work, and so forth, will likely lead to a never ending discussion of points and counterpoints (an intelligence based approach), I am focusing on proving that such a fundamental way of thinking (I call it “The Wisdom Approach’) can indeed change the world. Currently, I am collaborating with a professor using proper research channels at an established institution to develop an ethics chip which would give computers the ability to evaluate and make judgement on ethical thought constructs. Should proof of concept be proven, we hope to extend this research and application into building computers with personality. Hopefully, by then, it would show that the Wisdom Approach can indeed utilized in a manner that can make a real difference (because A.I. and current computer science cannot break through these barriers) and there will be a movement to utilize this approach for use by people (I have already tried it, albeit in a limited manner, on a number of masters level classes to good effect) . Cheers, Brian R. Tan

    Reply
  3. Lucky Chhetri

    I guess, once again there are full of egos all around the world. Knowingly and unknowingly we are all facing the 3rd world war. it’s a modern emotional cold war. The rest, the coming days will tell us.

    Reply
  4. JC Wandemberg Ph.D.

    Time is overdue for us to see ourselves beyond borders as one human race.

    Reply
  5. Abderrahmane AMROU

    Hello!

    The World is divided because of the Multipolar World System which I criticized in my reflections and my book entitled “The State System”.

    And the tangible proof is there, it is shown through all these wars in the Arab countries (Syria, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, etc.).

    As a result, all these superpowers and these great international powers have fought a fierce fight to divide the world of small countries and to seize privileges and multiple illegitimate interests.

    In conclusion, it is necessary that the great powers of this World collaborate together for the establishment of a “New World Order” based on a unipolar international system, in the form of a World Government or an Institution of this type.

    Also, the interdependence between States and Governments and global cooperation must be implemented through the reform of the UN and international institutions.

    Read more in my books in this link:

    https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=Abderrahmane+Amrou&i=stripbooks&__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&ref=nb_sb_noss

    Reply

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