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27 comments on John Robb: Power to the People?

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Subkommander Dred on April 4, 2006 - 11:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
It would seem that what Mr. Robb is proposing is nothing new or original. Caligula hiring Germanic warriors to be his bodyguard, the French hiring Swiss mercenary crossbowmen for the battle of Agincourt, the British East India Company creating their own army and navy, the enlistment of Pinkerton gunmen by the robber barons of the late 19th century. Whenever I hear anyone start to tout 'market forces' (as I believe he did so) to control security in a changing world, I get really nervous, kind of like watching a snake oil salesmen hustling his product while I keep a firm hand on my wallet. In short, what he is advocating is protection for the rich and powerful while the rest of us have to manage to get by however we can. There is something not only very frightening about this worldview, but also very anti-American. Private armies and hired goons are not what are country is supposed to be about.
    I would of course be interested in hearing any other views on this matter. What do you think?

                     Subkommander Dred

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Don Sailorman on April 5, 2006 - 9:04am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Various science fiction writers (perhaps most notably, Mack Reynolds) developed the theme that multinational coporations with their own armed forces would displace the nation state as having a "legal monopoly" on the use and threat of violence to impose ordere. The stories were interesting, but to me, unconvincing.

The nation-state has only been the biggest player on the political field for about 500 years; earlier we find alternative arrangements, whether empires, feudal estates or city states.

For what it is worth, my guess is that something along the lines of a city-state may displace the nation-state as a focus of power--combined with some sort of (am not clear in my mind on this at all) world order to suppress pirates and terrorists.

Rarely do I venture on predictions, but here is one: The twenty-first century is going to be as different from the twentieth as the twentieth century was from the seventeenth century. In other words, I think we live in a time of major discontinuity. I suspect that different regions of the world will have extremely different outcomes over the next hundred years. Or to put it differently, I think the "prophets of globalization" who predicted a convergence of living standards and lifestyles throughout the world were and are 100% wrong.

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Donal on April 5, 2006 - 1:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
... some sort of (am not clear in my mind on this at all) world order to suppress pirates and terrorists.

They'll need hand-cranked light sabers.  

I suspect that different regions of the world will have extremely different outcomes over the next hundred years.  

Agreed.

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27 comments on John Robb: Power to the People?

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