To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
In both policy and academic circles, decentralization or federalism has become a hotly debated alternative for managing intrastate conflicts. This talk presents an argument for understanding the differing capacity of decentralized states to contain the often violent struggles between ethnic and regional groups and the states in which they live. Empirically, the talk focuses on three conflictual center-region pairs: In Russia, Chechnya’s relationship to Moscow; in India, Punjab’s relationship to Delhi; and in Canada, Québec’s relationship to Ottawa.
For a statistical study related to this talk, see “Diversity, Disparity, and Civil Conflict in Federal States,” in World Politics, October 2006, pp. 1–50 (Kristin M. Bakke and Erik Wibbels).
Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.