IAN BREMMER: Global strife burns longer and hotter as US and major powers step back
World’s most powerful governments continue to pretend turmoil in faraway places can be safely ignored
In the days and weeks that followed the September 11 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, a consensus emerged about how best to prevent future such catastrophes. Ungoverned expanses of territory, political officials warned us, become breeding and training grounds for extremists. In this way, some countries that produce little of value can begin to export violence, refugees and turmoil.
This was the logic that led to the nearly 20-year US-led war in Afghanistan that ended just six months ago. The lesson might have been re-learnt when the Islamic State (IS) stepped into security vacuums in Iraq and Syria. Its militants threatened to wreak havoc across continents, and turmoil in the Middle East produced waves of refugees that created new kinds of political and economic burdens in Europe and other Middle Eastern countries like Turkey. ..
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