The changing global power equation

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THE DAVOS TALKS
TheStar.com - opinion - The changing global power equation
The changing global power equation

So much is written so often about power that it is surprising how little we seem to understand it. Important shifts in power often take place in the shadows, beyond our view. As a consequence, we sometimes fail to understand them as they are happening and it takes decades or centuries before we truly grasp what has transpired.

Or that with the death of the Muslim admiral who led China's "age of exploration," Zheng He, in 1433 that the emperor of China would choose a course of isolation that would ultimately result in the decline of the Ming Dynasty and forestall China's engagement in the world as a great power by almost six centuries?

Part of the reason that predicting the consequences of power shifts is so difficult is that power flows from so many sources. Political and military power may be most pre-eminent in our thinking but religion, science, technology, the environment, social trends, and countless other drivers shape the fate of rulers, trigger conflicts, and lead to the ebb and flow of the power of states, economic entities, and peoples.

In fact, the power structure of the world is much like that of a complex atom, whirring at many levels, with events at one often triggering changes at the others.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/171756#