Unbridled competition among states

Overemphasis on competition between states inevitably leads to a rat race and to global economic wars. It exacerbates the inability of national authorities to address the right priorities at national and global level. Market competition alone is self-defeating in a context of competing nations or competing blocs, leading as it does to a counter-intuitive evolution against market mechanisms through: new forms of protectionism and defensive national policies; techno-nationalism through restriction of the movement of knowledge; and bilateralism as a means to exclude competitors from a market.

The chauvinism of countries frequently exhibits the 'chosen people' syndrome backed up by an ideology, religious or otherwise, peculiar to each country. India, Sri Lanka, Israel, and the Arab States have their favoured religions as do a number of officially or historically Christian ones. Some countries claim unique cultures or histories which, as in China, Ethiopia, Iran and Japan, are partly based on racist notions. The USSR originally claimed Soviet Union itself to be the fountainhead of the true Marxist-Leninist heritage, and the USA claims ownership of the 'Protestant ethic' (whereby the poor and miserable have only themselves to blame). France is unique, so is Italy, so is the UK and so is every other country, for to a unique ideology one can add the divisive value of linguistic chauvinism, and of paramount significance to ongoing rivalry, the historicity and 'hard-won' nature of national sovereignty.