Even NATO youth in the politically correct bubble: climate and gender equality priorities for the Alliance?
The NATO Youth Summit was held on 9 November, an event intended for young people from countries that are part of the Atlantic Alliance. Among the various interesting ideas, two things particularly struck me: a constant reminder of climate change and gender equality / promotion of diversity and a sentence uttered by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In particular, the interaction between the two points is singular.
Pompeo, in his speech, affirmed what should be the obvious but which seems less and less so in the current reality: "Analyze the world for what it is, and not for what you would like it to be". Basically, try not to be guided by false ideologies or illusions but by the reality of the facts. Stand up for principles and values but also be realistic. A consideration that, in other times, would have been branded as obvious, taken for granted; it should certainly not be necessary to remark it.
In various circumstances during the event, however, it was claimed that the greatest threat facing NATO – political-military alliance! – will face in the next decade is climate change. Not China, not Russia, not terrorism. Not the return of competition between great powers, chemical-bacteriological-nuclear and hypersonic weapons, uncontrolled migrations, the growing polarization of our societies. It is climate change that, in some statements, has emerged as the main threat, or at least one of the most relevant. And not in the next forty years but in the next ten.
Furthermore, as part of the survey submitted to participants relating to the main security challenges in 2030 for NATO – and, I stress, for NATO, not in general for humans – the responses "climate change" and "growing global great power competition ” were matched. But is it realistic to think that climate change will represent a challenging challenge for NATO as much as those posed by China, by the return of Russia, by the rise of new players on the global scene? The suspicion that this will not be the case is not only linked to the different magnitude of the challenges in absolute terms, but also in relative terms: the Atlantic Alliance, by its nature, can hardly be the priority forum for tackling climate change. Among other things, its resources are already all in demand in countering the most classic threats to security. Yet the perception appears to be different.
In addition to this, to the question of what allies should do to ensure NATO's military efficiency in the future, the answer "spend more on defense" was coupled with "make gender equality a priority and promote diversity in the Armed Forces ”(17 percent – 15 percent). Of course, maximum importance was attributed to "focusing on the application of cyber and new technologies in the military" (65 percent), however it is surprising to note how mainstream ideology prevents us from seeing that equality and diversity are important but they certainly cannot have a significance equal to the need for greater investments in the defense sector, a sector which, among other things, is heavily penalized in countries such as Italy. Yet, apparently, diversity and defense spending have the same weight according to the young people selected specifically for the event.
Here, then, Pompeo's statement takes on a certain significance. We live in a world in which, more and more, young people observe reality through their own bubble. Specifically, they are constantly hammered about the near end of the world due to climate change or how much injustice and inequality would pervade the most equal societies ever to appear on planet Earth. Consequently, even in the face of security threats that are objectively more relevant than climate change or gender balance, an unconditional reflex leads to a predetermined response. I fear that only a sudden but predictable awakening will be what will bring everyone back to the harsh reality.
The post Even NATO youth in the politically correct bubble: climate and gender equality priorities for the Alliance? appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/anche-i-giovani-della-nato-nella-bolla-politicamente-corretta-clima-e-parita-di-genere-priorita-per-lalleanza/ on Wed, 11 Nov 2020 03:44:00 +0000.