Paddy Ashdown is the author of A Fortunate Life and revealed his views at a recent TedX Talk in Brussels regarding the global shifts of power we are seeing today. He highlights three main events in the near future that will establish the loss of power residing in the West and the new emergence of it on a global scale, were everyone is accountable to everyone. We've seen this with the G7, G8 and now G20. The climate of the global mood during times of power changes are "accompanied by turbulence and, all too often. blood". According to Ashdown we are living in just that climate right now as the US begins to lose its grip on its power (excessive spending has resulted in cuts in defense spending and a complete shift from manufacturing to sole service industry) and the new powers for the foreseeable future are beginning to form.
Examples of this type of global emotion are drawn from the two great World Wars where power shifted from old Europe to the new America, the military industrial complex. He highlights the lateral shifts in power from the Greeks to Rome. Today the real power is not moving laterally only, its also moving vertically. This means that the polar powers of the world are coming together to make alliances and treaties which outline the acceptable ways to interact on a global scale.
According to SpeakersCorner:
Paddy Ashdown was born in New Delhi in 1941, the eldest of seven children. At 4 years old, his family returned to Britain to a farm in Ulster. Between 1959 and 1972 he served in the Royal Marines and saw active service as a Commando Officer in Borneo and the Persian Gulf. After Special Forces Training in England in 1965, he commanded a Special Boat Section in the Far East. He went to Hong Kong in 1967 to undertake a full-time course in Chinese, returning to the United Kingdom in 1970, where he was given command of a Commando Company in Belfast.In 1972, Paddy left the Royal Marines and joined the Foreign Office. He was posted to the British Mission to the United Nations in Geneva where he was responsible for Britain's relations with a number of UN organisations and took part in the negotiation of several international treaties and agreements between 1974 and 1976, including aspects of the European Security Conference (the Helsinki Conference). After leaving the Foreign Office Paddy worked in industry in South-West England between 1976 and 1981 and in 1981 went to work as a Youth Worker with the Dorset County Council Youth Service, with responsibility for initiatives to help the young unemployed.
