The Benefits of Decentralization in International Security

By Caleb Newton

   The complexity of international society closely resembles a real living thing. Just as in living things, the health or illness of the societal structure depends on the proper combination of and output from external forces applied both intentionally, like medicine, and unintentionally, like genetics. These two kinds of forces are enormously complex forces in themselves, leading their collective output to the health of the "living thing." From such understanding, International Security presently lacks usage of a great tool, economic and political decentralization, allowing for natural stabilization.

 
   For natural stabilization to occur there are certain concepts and forces, like trust and incentive that help to explain some of the basic functions of society through interpersonal relationships. The persons that make up both the economy and the society lend a measure of their living complexity, through their relationships, to both entities. As such, items of force centrally applied to "stem bleeding" in society must be applied with extreme caution and respect for the system; for the centralized "items of force" curtail the effects of the forces that each individual operates upon, such as trust and incentive - the very forces that contribute to natural stabilization. When individuals have a goal and a structure formed by the natural application of the social forces, such as in the business and in the family, the society stabilizes and violent extremism can be expected to decrease significantly.

   A political and economic decentralization of the world system, away from explicitly serving the interests of crony capitalism, must take effect. Crony capitalism is the appearance of freedom when, actually, there is nothing but tyranny of a selected and favored group, "the cronies," by the government. Although termed under "capitalism," the effects of crony capitalism are evident well outside of the economy, as it destabilizes the world system because it is a thinly disguised form of central planning, which automatically excludes people that really matter in a given situation, like doctors setting their own prices and foreign national governments choosing their own path. 

  Take for instance, Israel. Should Israel be expected to cave into the terrorists' demands and hand over land owned by the Israelis under international law, if nothing else, by the centralized world community? The actions of Hamas and Hezbollah classify them as a terrorist organization and their intent, along with the Iranian threats, is to destroy the state of Israel. Even a small handing over of land means caving in to their demands! The legitimacy of their demands for land is long outdated. They are like hostage takers demanding ransom. The whole people of Israel are under siege, and the terrorists claim that if given land, they will cease and desist from fighting but so far this has not been supported – yet the centralized world system insists on failed policies that ensure the opposite of what they claim to want, a secure State of Israel.

    The growth achieved by the terrorists of Hamas and every other such group in the world is achieved because the world environment was centrally orchestrated by the growing ideal of international institutionalism. The negotiations for peace, when they go on, are situated with a "third-party negotiator" – mostly the United States – and such a system is viewed as the only way to achieve peace. As all observing can see, the centralized, third-party Western negotiator system has failed.

   The centralized system is a flawed system that encourages crony capitalism, a prejudicial form of tyranny that destabilizes the international system. So, only through a decentralization of the international system will we be able to see a natural stabilization of the world's security. The centralized global system has failed to guarantee international security, as shown by the example. In the Israeli case, while a centralized system for peace will only contribute to more conflicts, a decentralized system will create the conditions, through societal empowerment of every citizen, which will soon allow for a stabilization of the region's security.

(Image: The Grand Canal from Rialto - Canaletto) 

[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society]