We live in turbulent times, as events of the last two and a half years have shown. Some of us may think it was unforseen, but that would be showing up our ignorance. Some saw this turbulence way ahead of now, and one of those was Paddy Ashdown.
In late 2011, Paddy Ashdown gave a TED talk titled “The Global Power shift”, in which he described (or predicted) how the international scene was going to change in years ahead. He talked about the three major power shifts that he forsaw.
Global Shift 1
Power is shifting vertically, from national space to global space. Our capacity to bring sensible governance to the global space will determine how well we traverse the following decade.
Global Shift 2
Power is shifting horizontally from the west to the east in an emerging multi-polar world. Alternative centres of powers are building up and we have to reach across the global space to others in getting things done
Global Shift 3
Today in our modern world because of the internet and the global power shifts, everything is connected to everything. We are connected as nations and individuals in a way we have never been before. We are intimately locked together.
According to Paddy, “what this means is, the idea of a nation state acting alone not working with others is no longer a viable proposition because the actions of a nation state are neither confined to itself nor is it sufficient for the nation state itself to control its own territory because the effects outside the nation state are now beginning to affect what happens inside them”.
Bear in mind this was Paddy Ashdown speaking in 2012, way before we found ourselves in this Brexit situation where the Conservative government of Mrs Theresa May is aiming to break the United Kingdom away from the European Union (EU) which is one of the three major power poles in the world, the United States of America (USA) and China being the other two.
Ashdowns Third Law
Paddy then concludes by giving us what he called Ashdown’s third law . No there is no first or second Ashdown laws because he said he had not invented them yet.
In the modern age where everything is connected to everything the most important thing about what you can do is what you can do with others. Your capacity to network with others! Industry understands that – governments don’t.
How true his words turned out to be!
A man with such wisdom, a giant political figure, a statesman of the calibre that is missing from politics today.
Listen to the talk yourself – its only 19 minutes. I have listened again and again and again to this spellbinding talk.
We miss you already Paddy!