GSF opinion piece by Lord Lothian – ‘Lessons For The Post-COVID World: No Time For a Victors’ Justice’

We are delighted to publish the eighth in our series of expert comment and analysis. As always, the views expressed are those of the author and not of GSF unless otherwise stated. The full version of Lord Lothian’s article is now available to download: Lessons For the Post-COVID World

One thought on “GSF opinion piece by Lord Lothian – ‘Lessons For The Post-COVID World: No Time For a Victors’ Justice’

  1. Lord Lothian’s piece makes very good points.

    There seems to be cycles in history with period between seventy and one hundred years where old structures break down. There seems to be a need for a catastrophic event like the Thirty Years war or the Great War to bring about a rebirth.

    A mechanism similar to the UN Security Council is required to prevent war escalating to the point where a General Nuclear Exchange take takes place, as this could conceivably be an Extinction Event. The present standoff between China, a Nuclear Armed Security Council member and India a nuclear Armed non Security Council member which has just lost territory will be fascinating to watch.

    Trump’s withdrawal of funding from a UN Agency, the WHO is enormously worrying. It has echoes of the German and Italian withdrawal from the League of Nations during the Ethiopian war. luckily there are less than 150 days to the US presidential and Senate elections.

    WHO is enormously important to manage both the experimentation with, prophylactic development, and vaccine distribution to counter the vast number of viruses which are dangerous to humans, animals and plants, including the myriad of HN viruses some of which have far higher mortality than the (luckily) relatively mild one we are coping with at the moment.

    WHO is also managing the campaign against Anti Microbial Resistance, the threat of which is giving rise to untreatable forms of Tuberculosis and Gonorrhoea which again threaten Human and Animal life with the reoccurence of 19th century disease. Chinese participation in this effort is essential as is American, despite their penchent for using antibiotics like smarties.

    A global organisation to manage the funding of R & D into novel antibiotics is required, now that For Profit BigPharma Drug Companies cannot justify investing in the work on cost and risk grounds.

    Far more difficult is NATO. Conceived as a defence mechanism for Europe (at much the same time as the Marshall Plan imposed American Empire on Europe) under the wing of a nuclear capable and rich power, we are now faced with economic and military threats from the US as well as a revived Russia.

    Imagining the mechanism by which the declining American occupation can be removed without in turn being occupied by some other power will take some time, and very deft thinking. The expulsion of the Spanish from the Netherlands in the 16th century, illustrates the difficulty and timescales.

    Turning the Mediterranean into a Euro-African lake as part of integrating a Euro African Free Trade area as Guy Verhofstadt proposes and restricting American Warships access to the waters will be interesting. Hyper-sonic missiles which make aircraft carriers obsolete will help.

    The European Union will need to think seriously how this Common Defence is to be achieved, at the same time as Russia is admitted to the EU, as part of the rapprochement with France and Germany and the Renaissance of the Russian Economy. Will UK be Friend or Foe?

    Quite where this will leave Ireland isn’t really clear. Russian submarines visiting or based in Cork, might raise some American Admirals’ blood pressure as will a few Franco – Russian bomber and fighter squadrons at Shannon and Baldonnel..

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