Global Guerrillas: The US, GLOBALIZATION and the RED QUEEN

Description

Here's something useful to those of thinking about the future of conflict and society. Hopefully, this gets you thinking. I had fun with it. There is a simple concept from evolutionary biology that describes the evolutionary arms race between competitive species -- predator/prey and parasite/host. It was found by the evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen via extensive analysis of marine biological record. In short, it posits that the probability of extinction isn't a function of how long the species exists. It doesn't get easier or harder as time goes on. It's random. Which implies: Constant evolution is necessary just to stay competitive. If your rate of evolution falls behind your competitors: You die (become extinct). Your evolution must be relative to the evolution of your competitor. If they zig, you must zag (if not, you die). The US, Globalization and the Red Queen Since the treaties of Westphalia nearly 400 years ago, competition between nation-states was the primary driver of social evolution. The method or model of competition was between predator and prey and between predators, made stable through creeping global expansion (new competition) and a wide diversity of competitive models. That competition narrowed during WW2 and again through the cold war down to two keystone competitors, each with a different model/ecosystem. The US and the USSR. With the elimination of USSR as a competitor, the US social and economic ecosystem became dominant and now blankets the world through globalization. However, as a result of this victory, the US lost it's drive/imperative to evolve. It has ...

Original URL

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/08/the-us-globalization-and-the-red-queen.html?cid=6a00d83451576d69e20120a51d102a970b

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/08/the-us-globalization-and-the-red-queen.html?cid=6a00d83451576d69e20120a51d102a970b