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Don’t give up on a better world

In 2021 Mark Leonard, a leading authority on international relations, published a book with an ominous title The Age of Unpeace. Leonard claims that since the collapse of communism there has been a continuous push for breaking down trade barriers and integrating the world’s economy via improved transport and communication networks as well as the internet.

01.png New technologies have made our travelling, calls, and data transfers both cheaper and faster, thus improving the quality of our lives. However, the same technologies have become potent weapons for new kinds of war. We can see it daily on social media or read about so called hybrid wars in the news. While trying to understand why globalization has not delivered on its promise to make the world safer and more prosperous, Leonard does not give up hope for a better world and explores how we can devise a better future.

Tragically, months after the book’s publication “unpeace” has turned into classic warfare and ushered in an era in which a clear distinction between war and peace can be made easily even by children. 

Antagonism between the West and Russia has reached a new, almost unprecedented, level. Vital cooperation on solving global threats to the long term survival of humanity, such as pandemics and climate change, has almost stopped. We keep imposing new sanctions, are quickly rearming our societies, and becoming overwhelmed by continuous migrant inflows.

However, the urgent should not distract us, at least in the medium term, from the important. There is no immediate holding back of the climate change, rising technology-driven inequality, and skills mismatch. In order to fix these challenges, we will need to continue to innovate and change our education system so that technology-driven prosperity is widely shared and our way of living becomes sustainable.

Imposing peace in freedom loving and war-battered Ukraine is the order of the day. But we, like Mark Leonard, cannot give up on a better future. Hence, solving threats to prosperity, social cohesion and sustainability must come next.

We hope our new issue of Connection will help you with the latter. 


Ronald Blaško, Executive Director of AmCham Slovakia