The Committee to Nuke Elysium

The fragmentation of societies from within is clear: From Bogotá to Bangalore, gated communities with private security are on the rise.

“This diffuse, fractured world will be run more by cities and city-states than countries. ((((Waiting for the first free-trade city that abolishes national passports and declares itself to be “global.” They’re probably gonna need their own nuclear arsenal, but hey, given that, the sky’s the limit.)))

“Once, Venice and Bruges formed an axis that spurred commercial expansion across Eurasia. Today, just 40 city-regions account for two thirds of the world economy and 90 percent of its innovation. The mighty Hanseatic League, a constellation of well-armed North and Baltic Sea trading hubs in the late Middle Ages, will be reborn as cities such as Hamburg and Dubai form commercial alliances and operate “free zones” across Africa like the ones Dubai Ports World is building. (((Straight out of a John Shirley cyberpunk novel from the early 1980s.)))

“Add in sovereign wealth funds and private military contractors, and you have the agile geopolitical units of a neomedieval world. (((Oh brother.)))

“Even during this global financial crisis, multinational corporations heavily populate the list of the world’s largest economic entities; the commercial diplomacy of emerging-market firms such as China’s Haier and Mexico’s Cemex has already turned North-South relations inside out faster than the nonaligned movement ever did. (((I’ve got to respect an analyst who can even remember the Non-Aligned Movement. I spend a lot of my time in a rambunctious city-state that exists in its wreckage.)))