3) Conflict & Governance

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3) War & Peace

These are integral part of any period of history. And they have associated stimulus to development. 

The republic system matured in America after the Civil war of 1865. It took 50+ years after that for the golden age of the "American Dream" to arrive. And that too was propelled by two World Wars. 

The war machinery, aided by concurrent industrial revolution, tapped the global opportunities. The boost in economy came from: 
  • Ability to attract talent from all over the world
  • Gaining & Retaining control on Technology
  • Not being dependant on domestic demand
  • Access to a wide range of resources within and outside the country

In the USA, it does not matter who gets elected. The industry is always a priority. By the way... they see Farming also as an Industry. They have mastered the economics of "Demand" and "Supply". 

After the World War II, Europe was limping back to normalcy. Germany had to start from scratch. Japan was fully aligned with US, as a result of the Hiroshima incident. USSR was the only competitor. A cold war for gaining global dominance began. The conflicts in Middle east to gain control of Oil were all fallouts of the same. Opposite Factions in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, even Vietnam and Korea were sided by the two world powers. 

But USSR had two disadvantages. One, Socialism. Two, Language. They were losing the war on both fronts. Ability to keep people happy locally and influence opinion globally. English was after all the "International Language”, installed by the previous Empire. USSR fell and divided into Russia and multiple Eastern Bloc countries in 1991. 

China the other Socialist state, opted for a different experiment. The governing committee decided to take the capitalistic approach. Focus on Industry. However, keep distribution of profits under tight control. China has developed & prospered dramatically. But sustaining the growth and handling people's discontent are the challenges. 

USA has managed to stay ahead by keeping the divide between "haves" and "have-nots" within tolerable levels. The current issues around Migration and Racism may be an indication that the balance is getting disturbed. 

Will an external conflict help in addressing these challenges?

This and more in my next blog post...

See my earlier blog post on the subject... Evolution-of-governance-models

This chain of thoughts was initiated after reading following articles:

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