The world is changing rapidly and the changes are likely to lead to a global conflict in the future. The world population is increasing at an alarming rate especially in the developing world. The high population needs more resources to meet their basic needs yet the resources are scarce. Therefore, people have to scramble for the scarce resources. Eventually conflicts arise as people try to get a piece of the resources.
The poor will get into violence as they try to get resources from the rich. The high levels of poverty will continue to increase with the social inequality that is prevalent in many countries. Just as Karl Marx urged the proletarians will stage an uprising and overthrow the capitalist class. Thus, the likelihood of future global conflict is high.
Globalisation will also lead to conflicts in the future. The trend has brought countries closer through trade, commerce and communication and at the same time the world is falling apart. The world has become one and with it nationalism is disappearing as people become global citizens thus it will be difficult to identify people according to culture or religion. The American culture has spread across the globe rapidly through films and television programs.
The loss of an identity will create a problem as some countries try to resist getting lost in the larger world and maintain their identity or avoid influences from other countries. This will lead to small wars that will put tribes against tribes as people seek to redraw boundaries in a world that has become increasing borderless. In other worlds old rivalries that existed will be renewed.
The clash of civilizations will also lead to conflicts in the future. Civilizations are at the highest kinds of grouping and share things like language, religion and customs among others.
People use civilizations to define identities and over time the identities go through redefinition. Today the world has become a global village due to the improved interactions between people from different civilizations.
Consequently, the interactions have led to an increase in civilization consciousness. People are more aware of their civilization similarities and differences. The awareness will rekindle the animosities that existed between the civilizations in the past and each will seek to become dominant.
Eventually wars might breakout between civilizations as they fight to maintain their identity and avoid domination by the others. Civilizations that are seen as a threat will face hostility from the threatened ones hence creating animosity instead of peace and togetherness.
The animosity between the west and the Arab world will continue to exist. The reason for this is that civilizations call upon people and states with similar perspectives to join hands and work together. An attack on one member of a civilization is taken as an attack on the whole civilization.
For example America’s Iraq occupation has been taken as an attack on the Islam civilization and that is why we have tension between Arab nations and the west. The fact that the western civilization dominates the world economically it is seeks to control other aspects such as weapon acquisition of other countries because it seeks to protect its welfare.
A conflict will arise because the non-western countries feel they have a right to acquire whichever weapons they deem fit for their security. For instance Iran is at loggerheads with the west for its nuclear enrichment plan and it has vowed to carry on despite of the sanctions.
Moreover, the Arab world has been reluctant to embrace globalization because it has been equated with Americanization. Religion has also been used to spread hatred against the west and the two civilizations will conflict in the future due to their different ideologies unless something is done to remove the animosity between the two by helping them to understand one another and maybe work together.
Finally, the world was safer twenty five years ago than it is now due to the fore mentioned challenges facing the world in the 21st century. Twenty five years ago, the world population was lower but with the current trends in fertility, rates especially in the developing world are very high.
The available resources cannot sustain the population with the challenge of global warming. Furthermore, many people are becoming radicalized by some religious affiliations and would not hesitate to commit crimes in the name of religion. Consequently, with low levels of safety in the world today, future global conflicts are inevitable.
The world security is at a threat today. The threat of terrorism remains great in many countries across the world as groups seek to kill or instil fear in others in order to fulfil their ideological or political goals.
For instance, some people have been intercepted carrying bombs in aeroplanes like the Nigerian man on an American plane. Not long ago a parcel carrying a bomb was incepted in Dubai in a plane from Yemen. Osama bin Laden still issues threats and the last one was against Europe.
The insecurity in the world today is further promoted by globalization and advancement in technology. For example, people can hack into security databases making countries vulnerable to attacks. Furthermore, sensitive information can be spreads across the world in a flash through the World Wide Web.
I have learnt that the more things change the more they remain the same. This is because in the past, the world was insecure and conflicts led to deaths of many people in conflicts such as the first and second world wars then came the era of cold war.
Today, the world is interconnected and countries dependent on one another however, this has not reduced the threat of conflicts because the countries are still weary of one another. More needs to be done to ensure world peace by addressing the reasons that are likely to lead to future global conflicts.