We are entering a new period in human history, we have now entered the world of post-globalisation. It was once noted by mathematician Eric Weinstein that since 2020, we have emerged from a period of ‘Great Nap’. This period that stretched from 1945-2020, has created a false sense of security amongst many nations and the concepts we held to view the world. This period itself was part of a wider era that stretched from the mid-fifteenth century into 2020.
For Peter Zeihan, this period of world history because of multiple factors like COVID, demographics, energy and other areas of geopolitics have all contributed to this dramatic ending. In short, the world we have previously known is gone and will almost certainly never return. We have at best emerged from a great nap of world history and will be brought headfirst into our stormy present. This stormy present will create new challenges to the global world structure. As a result, we need to create new avenues for thought to tackle these new-faced issues. This could possibly be in the form of creating a new international research collective organisation. Subsequently, one possible proposition is that of potentially setting up a Commonwealth Research Group (CRG), for these issues. Consequently, the formation of a CRG-like organisation would itself mirror the recent creation of the UK’s own ARIA, which itself is based off the US’s DARPA. It is this we must first examine, before investigating what CRG could look like and mean, for facing this new reality that we are living in.
ARIA
In the aftermath of the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum, it was hoped that the UK could re-engage with the world beyond the European Union. This was done in multiple ways, with Trade Deals and an increased sense of interest aimed towards the rest of the world. Additionally, one such project that has gone under the radar is that of ARIA. It has been no secret that ARIA has been a direct passion project for former special advisor to the UK Prime Minister Dominic Cummings, whose writings for the last ten years have explicitly made claim for a direct need for a project that would focus on placing the UK as a global leader in science and technology development. As a result, the creation of a new organisation that was “tasked with funding high-risk research that offers the chance of high rewards, supporting ground-breaking discoveries that could transform people’s lives for the better”. This follows as its inspiration in the form of DARPA, which has had its hands in creating COVID vaccines, GPS and the internet.
In summary, what this shows is that the creation of an organisation like ARIA, which gets to pick its own projects, and gets to exist outside of the existing bureaucracy structures, could help produce great results, mirroring that of DARPA. The role for this would be important, as it similarly allow for researchers to focus on specific projects without direct government intervention and oversight.
CRG
Following what we know about ARIA, we could see a potential to be formed amongst aligned nations that share common goals, values between nations. This is purely outside of Cumming’s ‘human goals’, of which are universal in nature and reflect the best about us.
If we continue following the same pre-globalisation thinking and problem solving, we will continue to fail at tackling the imminent problems within global politics. To quote Cormac McCarthy’s ‘No Country for Old Men’, “If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?” The inverse similarly is the thinking that got the world into its current state is based on pre-existing thought, what use is that thought really going forward?
As a result, if our pre-existing ideas have only led us to where we are now in the world, then the CRG could help build into the creation of new thought and new ideas that are needed to tackle the major issues facing nations across the world. The reason for the CRG specifically is twofold in nature. Firstly, The Commonwealth and its nation states. Secondly, its structure as an organisation going forward.
The Commonwealth
The reason specifically for a direct focus on the commonwealth as a potential source for this organisation is simple, it is something that has been undervalued and yet arguably can be of the most importance. As most of these new issues are going to be faced by the Global South, it would make sense to allow for the nations that are most directly affected by these issues to collectively work together.
Additionally, using a pre-existing association of the Commonwealth could provide an initial foundation block for allowing such nations to work together in facing these issues. Furthermore, the joint intellectual capacity of all nations would generate some of the best young minds that the world has to offer, and to directly get them to collaborate and work together within a singular organisation. In summary, what this would mean is that there would be plenty of joint-collaborative potential between said nations.
The Structure
A second core point of importance would be the structural elements of this organisation. For that, mirroring DARPA’s organisational style would be vital going forward. This being outside of a central governmental bureaucracy that would. Admittedly, this would be difficult via an interstate endeavour, but could mirror structurally the same as university and think tank joint-projects. However, getting multiple nations to work at a high-level of technology development would only create further problems down the line. Only after both factors could be achieved, then we could yield full results in establishing new avenues of thought in dealing with the problems faced by post-globalisation. In short, what this would allow for is the emergence of aligned nations to collectively work together to fix international security issues. This similarly would help such nations to tackle issues outside the purview of central governance. The results of this could mean the synthesising of the best minds across the Commonwealth, ideally to collectively work together. I understand that this is speaking ideally in a world built on realism, albeit pessimistic realism, especially in a post-globalised world structure.
In conclusion, what this would mean is the advancement of a joint research and development agency could be a pioneering force in the collective tackling of major global challenges going forward. It could be hoped that in the face of, international insecurity that a CRG-like project could be performed. This is especially relevant if the world is emerging from its ‘Great nap’, and will need to seek out new ideas and ways to face the issues that are rapidly approaching.
Mr. Nathan Wilson
Mr. Nathan Wilson is a Research Fellow at Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies at the Forum for Global Studies, New Delhi. Nathan Wilson is a graduate of University of Glasgow in Global Security.