GLOBAL SECURITY
On one hand , IT , particularly smartphones , has been the glue binding everyone together through social media , but the reality check we have witnessed is that this connectedness hasn ’ t changed the realities of ‘ geostrategic ’ tensions .
– Dr Patricia Shamai
IT ’ s long reach
Dr Shamai sees this political challenge , heightened by President Zelensky ’ s long reach into the hearts and minds of people around the world , as part of the confluence of globalism and people ’ s almost total reliance on IT . She considers globalism and IT two sides of the same coin .
“ On one hand , IT , particularly smartphones , has been the glue binding everyone together through social media , but the reality check we have witnessed is that this connectedness hasn ’ t changed the realities of ‘ geostrategic ’ tensions .”
Dr Shamai says that while the world has experienced the sporadic shocks of terrorism over recent decades , the return of nation-state aggression has had a more widespread impact on people ’ s feelings of vulnerability .
“ Remember this came on the heels of COVID-19 , which had already exposed our vulnerability to disease and highlighted our reliance on each other around the globe .”
That reliance was amplified by the technology allowing people to discuss , support and respond en masse . President Zelensky showed a clear understanding of this global development , and the inestimable value of feeding this internet discourse to mobilise world opinion to his side . One of the first impacts of this stratagem was Western governments quickly feeling public pressure to cease having a bet each way and become more unequivocal in their sanctions against Russia .
It also united the European Union just when it was showing signs of coming apart and NATO ’ s relevance was being questioned – and it opened a sluice gate of arms supplies .
The dramatic turnaround reflects a new geopolitical dynamic : the influence of the internet generation for whom social media platforms are the default information providers and , in the Western world at least , have no state borders .
This is the seismic shift , still evolving , that has the attention of professional observers and analysts . Of particular interest and concern is how Russia ’ s attempt to invade and consume Ukraine has intensified the world ’ s already shaky security .
“ We have a combination of threats and vulnerabilities unsteadying people ,” says Dr Shamai . “ And it now extends beyond non-state terrorism to the increasing hostility and tensions between states over disputed territory .”
Dr Shamai , whose field of specialisation is weapons of mass destruction , says this has reawakened the world to traditional security threats and traditional deterrence , to new fears about the proliferation and use of nuclear and chemical weapons .
Cold War fallout
Dr Flenley says the perplexity and worry that many people felt about the assault on Ukraine provides an opportunity to also reflect on the vast , but generally unacknowledged , gap between the West ’ s perspective on the end of the Cold War following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union , and the Russian perspective .
The mentality of the Russian state , he notes , has for centuries been shaped by a sense of being under constant threat . It was Alexander III ( Tsar from 1881 – 1894 ) who said Russia had only two allies – its army and its navy . Since the late 1940s , it has vested that same sense of being isolated and surrounded into its antagonism towards NATO .
Dr Flenley notes that at the end of the Cold War , Russia , under Boris Yeltsin , hoped that a new pan-European security architecture would be developed to replace the old Cold War divide . The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE ) was seen as a possible basis for this . It originated in 1975 during the period of detente , was formerly the
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