VIRTUAL STATES

New global political climate breeds imaginary nations

By: OSCAR KILLIAN OPINIONS EDITOR

Posted: 11/3/09

The new national order, complete with unprecedented executive power is predicated on the assumption of several unprecedented global conditions.

John Ikenberry explains that one of these conditions is the existence of "virtual states."

The term virtual state refers to an organization resembling a nation or government, including culture, national identity, and presence in global affairs.

The difference is it isn't necessarily based in a definitive geographic area.

In the case of autonomous terrorist cells, the main subject of Ikenberry's work regarding recent US foreign policy, they are also beyond the reach of national diplomacy, or the sanctions used to negotiate said diplomacy.

Unfortunately these virtual states, and the threat in the form of terrorism they present the US and the modern world at large, has resulted in an overhaul of US foreign policy to deal with the threat.

This includes the push definitive of Wolfowitz's career toward a world in which the US has no competitor state in terms of military power.

This means the development of military technology at such a breakneck speed that no other nation would even think about trying to catch up.

It includes a new analysis of the global political climate and the threats facing the nation, an element of which is the existence of virtual states.

Since terrorist cells and the figurative states they belong to have proved themselves dangerous, and are beyond dealing with diplomatically, it is the contention of proponents of the new US order that said states must be eliminated outright.

If this means invading another nation fostering such an imaginary state, whether it be voluntarily or because of that nation's inability to eliminate the state because due to lack of state strength, so be it.

If could lead, and already has, to the weakening, noncooperation with, or outright rejection of international treaties and partnerships.

This is also considered necessary and justifiable in light of the new sorts of threats endemic to the post-modern political climate.

The above is a rough sketch of Ikenberry's seven elements of the new face of American foreign policy.

Most modern Americans are familiar with some of its obvious manifestations, such as the Patriot Act and preemptive wars.

The concept itself of a virtual state though presents us with some interesting food for thought.

Kropotkin described the urge of a state as a concept to destroy anything resembling a "state within a state," and the US has not disappointed.

Granted, in this case the state has more to fear than lack of control; namely terrorism.

One must wonder why a person would so internalize the form of a government though as to create a landless state, but in the modern paradigm the protection of ideas and philosophies are possibly more important than the land divisions that presumably originally necessitated the creation of nations.

The post-modern man is presented with an interesting, unique opportunity: a choice between real and virtual states.

The choice of course is not individual but collective, and only time will tell the direction the world will take.

The reason "terrorist cells" are such a threat to landed nations is that they were designed specifically to exploit the weaknesses in government's law enforcement by having no linear chain of command or need for it.

In doing so they lack any single point to attack or hierarchy to climb in order to behead the organization of its leadership. Depending on which side wins the coming conflict, such an organization may be the only viable arrangement.

They don't have to be composed of radical, fundamentalist terrorists. Food Not Bombs is an attempt at a decentralized non-hierarchical organization, but its only goal is to distribute free food.