Cultural climate change

The cultural climate in the last year has changed globally with potential significance for stability. Unless politicians, defence forces and ministries learn to monitor cultural tensions as effectively as environmental ones, they will constantly find themselves surprised. Failing security is a symptom, not a cause, of social and political unrest. In much the same way the current rush to religion is symptomatic of the battle between conservative and liberal agendas, with conservative forces summoning renewed religious zeal to redefine identity and counteract freedom of movement, behaviour, expression and belief. It is a battle liberal thinkers cannot afford to lose.