DISASTER GEOPOLITICS IN DITWAH'S WAKE

Just as Canada's social justice activist and writer Naomi Klein, in her highly celebrated book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, explains the relations between disasters—manmade or natural—and vulgar capitalism driven by inhumane greed, so too can we see an inviting link between disasters and geopolitics.

- By Ameen izzadeen

Indian troops taking part in relief and rescue operations in a disaster-hit area. Pic courtesy X @DrSlaishankar

(DrSlaishankar)

In her 2007 book, she argues that disasters and wars are like honeypots for capitalist bees—or flies.

A followup book could similarly expose geopolitics' rush into disasters. If Klein or someone else were to venture out, a compelling case study would be Sri Lanka's recent disaster, where the killer cyclone Ditwah caused more than 600 deaths and leaving nearly 200 people unaccounted for.

Geopolitically speaking, the world is divided between nations with power ambitions and those vulnerable to falling prey to the power game. In other words, the world consists of geopolitical aggressors and geopolitical victims.

'Geopolitics' is a term initially employed, or at least popularised, in studies of geography's influence on power. In his definition of geopolitics, Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellen in the early 1900s saw the state as a living organism whose survival depended on territorial expansion and strategic control. Just as a living organism requires space to grow, states, too, require expansion to survive.

Such political thinking led to wars, colonisation, and annexation of territories. Today, however, geopolitics is about the expansion of a nation's political power in international relations. Power ensures survival. In pursuit of power, weaker countries become victims, and their sovereignty erodes in proportion to their vulnerability.

To understand geopolitics better, one must recognise that there is no free lunch in politics. Altruism is a deception. Foreign aid is a geopolitical tool. This holds true even when aid comes from United Nations agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.