Produced in a month in which it is estimated that more than 10,000 migrants embarked for Italy, and following a week of unprecedented immigrant fatalities, notably evoking an appeal by Pope Francis to the global community for assistance, and a declaration by a spokesperson for the European Commission that We do not have a silver bullet or any kind of panacea that is going to make the situation go away … and no amount of finger-pointing is going to change that.
- Is any credible effective strategic solution emerging regarding the influx of immigrants from across the Mediterranean to Italy and other countries — with the deaths of many in the process?
- What are the qualifications of those from whom strategic recommendations have been sought — and what kinds of input have been considered unacceptable?
- What effort has been made to employ crowdsourcing techniques to elicit a greater range of insight? How has any such input been filtered and presented to highlight creative possibilities, whether immediately viable or otherwise?
- What systemic analysis of the strategic challenge has been undertaken (reflecting the widest spectrum of opinions and possibilities)? How is it progressively adapted in the light of inability to engender a viable solution to date? To whom is it made available in order to elicit further insight and more informed debate?
- How is the value of human life assessed, given the complicity and vested interests of the EU countries in the manufacture and sale of arms — with the consequent major loss of life in conflict arenas such as the Middle East? Can “saving human life” then be considered an overriding strategic criterion?
- As the primary authority of Christian Europe in safeguarding human life, and in ensuring its reproduction under any circumstances (most notably in Africa), what role is the Vatican playing in articulating a resolution to the immigration crisis through use of its own extensive resources and accommodation facilities — especially given its long-term responsibility for engendering the crisis and sustaining its further development?
- As a means of advancing undeclared “humanitarian” agendas, will the strategic options for accommodation of refugees in Europe be adapted from the forced billeting of soldiers in private homes during wartime?
- Given the current trends, the unemployment crisis in Europe, and the progressive mechanisation of menial tasks, is it to be expected that beggars will soon be lining most urban streets, and that increasing crime and civil violence are to be anticipated?
- Given the complicity of EU countries in the very extensive (but carefully unpublicised) use of mercenaries in the conflicts in the Middle East over the past decade, should creative assistance from “security contractors” also be sought in order to alleviate the influx across the Mediterranean? Would this ensure the necessary “arms-length” disassociation of governments from any “unpleasantness”?
- Given the manner in which the UN and its associated agencies claim to be responding to humanitarian crisis situations elsewhere, how is it that they have responded so ineffectually to this immigration crisis and its fatalities — notably in failing to anticipate the dimensions of the crisis?
- Given EU and UN inability to respond effectively to the crisis, is it appropriate to conclude that their strategic strength lies in the token application of derivative thinking to derivative problems — namely providing a priority focus on short-term issues as a means of avoiding consideration of the factors engendering them in the longer term?
- What other issues should be recognized as evidence of equivalent institutional strategic failure in the management of global crises — and the unexamined failure to learn from that failure? How could key strategic questions, such as those above, be better identified and framed?
Related documents
- Strategic Implications of 12 Unasked Questions in Response to Disaster (2013)
- Map of Systemic Interdependencies None Dares Name: 12-fold challenge of global life and death (2011)
- Enabling Collective Intelligence in Response to Emergencies (2010)
- Disastrous Floods as Indicators of Systemic Risk Neglect: implications for authoritative response to future surprises (2009)
- Vigorous Application of Derivative Thinking to Derivative Problems (2013)
- Recognizing the Psychosocial Boundaries of Remedial Action (2009)
- Enabling Suffering through Doublespeak and Doublethink (2013)
- Reframing the Game of Strategic Dilemmas: a 12-fold interplay of possibilities of otherwise (2009)
