Tutorial Ticket (Week 8)
Write at least 150 words in response to the following:
Explore two lessons raised in the video/reading, at least one of them related to your discipline, which can be integrated into society to evade a particularforeseeable collapse in the future.
[N.B. The set video was Jarod Diamond's 'Why Societies Collapse' and the reading was John Ikenberry, 'The Rise of China and the Future of the West: can the liberal system survive?' (2008) 87 Foreign Affairs 23.]
One state with the potential to collapse, as foreseen by Diamond, is the Solomon Islands. It is not a country with a particularly significant role in world affairs. However, the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands is an example of powerful or elite countries like Australia and New Zealand choosing to engage in rather than isolate themselves from their region. RAMSI originally had a military focus but now works through the three pillars of economic governance, machinery of government and law and justice.
A key lesson for strengthening the resilience of the Solomon Islands can be drawn from the reading. It is that managing change is not just about addressing unit-level problems, but about the system in which those problems operate. The myopic exploitation of forestry resources has threatened to bring the logging industry and by relation the Solomons economy to the point of collapse. The difficulties of introducing economic reform and diversity to replace such a focus on short term goals is made more difficult because many Solomon Islanders are involved in subsistence agriculture and fishing.
The economic situation of the Solomon Islands is entwined with a conservative political culture with strong historical ties. In this way, Diamond’s observations that societies can be limited by conflicts between long term interests, short term benefits and cultural attitudes comes into play. The capacity for reform in the government of the Solomons is limited by endemic corruption and nepotism. In turn, this derives from the interests of the elites not in serving themselves, but in serving their clans. The cultural value which encourages a person to share any benefit they receive with their clan has powerful benefits to strengthening community. However, it can restrict the ability and will of the Solomons government to act transparently and in the long term interests of the country.
A key lesson for strengthening the resilience of the Solomon Islands can be drawn from the reading. It is that managing change is not just about addressing unit-level problems, but about the system in which those problems operate. The myopic exploitation of forestry resources has threatened to bring the logging industry and by relation the Solomons economy to the point of collapse. The difficulties of introducing economic reform and diversity to replace such a focus on short term goals is made more difficult because many Solomon Islanders are involved in subsistence agriculture and fishing.
The economic situation of the Solomon Islands is entwined with a conservative political culture with strong historical ties. In this way, Diamond’s observations that societies can be limited by conflicts between long term interests, short term benefits and cultural attitudes comes into play. The capacity for reform in the government of the Solomons is limited by endemic corruption and nepotism. In turn, this derives from the interests of the elites not in serving themselves, but in serving their clans. The cultural value which encourages a person to share any benefit they receive with their clan has powerful benefits to strengthening community. However, it can restrict the ability and will of the Solomons government to act transparently and in the long term interests of the country.