The goal of every established, functioning government is to secure its borders and protect its citizens. This expectation is universal, and gives citizens of the world time to manage their own affairs in relatively safe and secure environments.
This goal has historically been accomplished through the usage and maintaining of military force around the world, and is often a nation's greatest expense: for infrastructure, troops, weapons, technology, and research and development is not cheap.
Advancement in weapon technology over the past 100 years, and its proliferation throughout the world, has drastically increased the overall cost to wage war and lessens the prospect for a victory justifying the cost to do so, decreasing the likely hood that nations will go to war to settle differences. Established, global institutions, like the United Nations, provide the necessary forums for countries to talk through their differences and misunderstandings, which also decreases the chance of nations going to war to settle differences.
The current geo-political environment does not warrant massive military expenditures in most nations, so government budgets around the globe should shift their priorities and focus on the often overlooked and under appreciated, but ultimately most valuable resource on the planet: the human being.
The world's timeline of significant events, including the consequences of the major conflicts of the 20th century, and the spread of capitalism followed by globalization, has yielded a security dividend that is currently giving governments the best chance in modern history to collectively scale down military expenditure, in exchange for much needed focus and attention towards the human being.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment