Friday, 24th October 2008
Scots Tory MEP Highlights conflicting political ideologies
Speaking on the 63rd anniversary of the creation of the UN, Scots Tory MEP, Struan Stevenson called for multi-lateral solidarity and understanding between nations in a speech entitled “The New World Order: Conflicting Political Ideologies in an Uncertain World”, presented today (Friday 24th October) at Edinburgh University.
He began by saying:
“In the past year and during the turbulence in the financial markets in recent weeks in particular, we can be in no doubt that we live in a truly global market place. Borders between states are now merely facts of geography and the common market no longer refers to the European community but to the world. But whilst free enterprise is increasingly the route to bridging the gap between nations, there are, in my view, still four conflicting political ideologies - the EU and US, Russia, China and Jihad - that govern the planet. All are progressing at a different pace. But are these potentially unifying forces or a recipe for chaos?
“On top of this we have to add the toxic mix of globalisation, global poverty and climate change, not to mention economic meltdown. Solving these problems will require universal cooperation, but the world is divided. So where do we go? What does the future hold in such an uncertain world?”
Struan continued his lecture, given as part of the Europa Institute’s occasional lecture series, by considering the need for the EU/US, China and Russia to unite against their common enemy of fundamentalist extremism and to address world poverty and climate change. Whilst each of the four political ideologies co-exist side by side, he stated that there was no single unifying principle but:
“…two of the ideologies are straight nationalist – Russia and China do not hesitate to use brute force to spread and protect their philosophy. The Jihadists base their philosophy on religion although, unlike most Muslims, theirs is a religion of nihilistic despair. So only one system, that of the US and the EU is strictly political and spreads by osmosis and example.”
He examined each of these political strategies in turn –– drawing on a number of private conversations with some of the world’s most influential leaders.
His conclusion was that it is the need to grow and survive economically that binds the EU and US, based on the principles of free enterprise, freedom and democracy. China bases its ideology on free enterprise, little freedom and no democracy and Russia uses energy as a weapon in its attempt to recreate its imperial past. Meanwhile the fourth political ideology, Jihad, based on a distorted interpretation of religion, sits isolated, with its fundamentalist ethos, seeking to bring down all the other global economies and systems.
Concluding his lecture, Struan identified the oppressive mullah regime in Tehran as being at the heart of attempts to build a Jihadist empire and called for the key world capitals (Washington DC, Brussels, Beijing, Moscow) to unite against Tehran to derail their plans.
“In this uncertain world it is our duty to make sense out of the chaos and to ensure that we control it rather than allow it to engulf us," he said.
