Are we moving quickly enough to combat global security threats? Worthy goals are being set, but they are NOT being achieved with sufficient velocity.
The ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a reminder of our many challenges as national and global citizens. Lest we forget, the future is not an optional event. Everyone will attend.
Are we doing what we need to do to secure a safe and prosperous future and are we doing it fast enough?
A couple of years ago I was engaged by the EastWest Institute, a global ‘think and do tank’, to design a special one-day horizon thinking event for their annual Worldwide Security Conference. It was held in Brussels, Belgium and was co-sponsored by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and World Customs Organization.
As a part of my work in shaping the third day of the conference, I co-authored with Dr. Greg Austin, the Director of the Global Security program at The EastWest Institute, a white paper that set the context for “A Day In The Future.” Below is a summary. Click here for the complete article.
A Day In The Future
The human security environment of the future will be shaped by transnational threats evolving from wars, violent extremism, natural disasters, pandemics, and unaddressed systemic problems—including poverty, organized crime, and environmental degradation. Technology will remain a force-multiplier for violent extremists, not only for higher levels of lethality, but for propaganda dissemination. Real-time, global communication will exacerbate the psychological impact of potential threats and the aftermath of incidents.
Are the leadership groups in the global community moving quickly enough to successfully combat these nascent threats? In many instances, worthy goals are being set, but they are not being achieved with sufficient velocity. As Prime Minister Singh noted in 2005: “the international community is generous in setting goals, but parsimonious in pursuing them.”
The Status Quo Is Not An Option
An icon in global business leadership, Jack Welch, has cautioned, “Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it would be.” The hard reality of security for humankind is that we are witnessing the dawn of a dynamic, multi-threat environment that has never before existed. In this environment, the leadership challenge is no longer a stream of single point security threats. Rather, it has become a raging river of interdependent, often ambiguous signals that require fast, smart analysis, rapid and robust action plans, and well-orchestrated, cross-boundary responses. It will take a new breed of leadership to accomplish this.
Another hard reality for global leadership is that the tempo of change and interdependence is accelerating exponentially and many of the governmental structures and political process paradigms that worked in the past are outdated. As a result, individual states cannot act unilaterally to ensure their homeland security. In fact, global and regional security challenges cannot be adequately addressed by states working together at the intergovernmental level without NGO and private sector support. Even the major powers and the United Nations system acting in perfect harmony could not provide the scale and speed of response required.
Given these and many other hard realities, accepting the status quo or delaying action on the obvious leadership challenges is no longer a reasonable option. Where do we begin?
The EastWest Institute has identified three opportunity areas for leadership action, which collectively can accelerate solutions to security threats:
- Strategic Collaboration
- ‘Think and Do’ Networks
- Cross-Boundary Leadership
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