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June 12, 2006
This is indeed strange.The Australian reports that Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the development, concepts and doctrine centre at Britain's Ministry of Defence, informed a conference that future migrations would be comparable to the Goths and Vandals, that North African pirates could be attacking yachts and beaches in the Mediterranean within 10 years whilst Europe could be undermined by growing immigrant communities with little allegiance to host countries -- a "reverse colonisation" .
Perry says:
Globalisation makes assimilation seem redundant and old-fashioned ... (the process) acts as a sort of reverse colonisation, where groups of people are self-contained, going back and forth between their countries, exploiting sophisticated networks and using instant communication on phones and the internet."
Perry pinpointed 2012 to 2018 as the time when the power structure of the world, much of which dates from World War II, was likely to crumble. Rising nations such as China, India, Brazil and Iran would start to challenge the US as the only superpower. This would come as "irregular activity" such as terrorism, organised crime and "white companies" of mercenaries burgeons in lawless areas at the expense of conventional forces. The effects would be magnified as borders become more porous and some of the most vulnerable areas sink beyond effective government control. Criminals and guerillas may then spread the danger beyond these areas.
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Wouldn't you know it, on the very day I cancelled my weekday Oz subscription. I'll track the article down, sound interesting. In a sense the sorts of trends he forecasts are a neat bookend to what globalisation has brought about at the other end of the scale, ie tax-shifting, highly mobile global executives moving about both within and outside their companies, transfer of data to support design, manufacturing, medicine etc.