Human nature is plagued with fear and remorse, concurrently with greed for power. Hence, it strives to avail every bit of it offered by the fellows. However, the very nature plays its part during the process. For instance, humans can be easily misled because they remain misinformed most of the time. Moreover, humans can mistakenly mistreat their fellows because of mistrust between them. Therefore, humans keep cursing these misses that happen to them due to the inherent greed in their nature.
This is what the international theory of realism proffers that the world is anarchic and selfish. Humans who lead the states make the states greedy for power and hegemony by misusing what has been blessed by nature, science, and technological innovations.
Therefore, the purpose of writing this short article is to create awareness among the people about the curse of misses that may include the misuse of geography, science and technology, religion and culture, ethnicity and sectarianism, and perhaps above all the misuse of power and authority.
Beginning with the misuse of geography in which humans played very little part, yet manipulated its use in every sphere of life and living. Geopolitics, Geostrategy, and now more often use of Geo-economics. The states make use of their geography which inherently contains topography, climatology, natural resources, people, and culture, besides many more natural blessings. Above all the location of the state plays a vital part in the employment of geography in each of the above domains. For instance, New Zealand may be a highly developed state with its presence on Human Development Indices, but due to its isolated location cannot play a decisive part in the realm of geopolitics or the geostrategy. Whereas Pakistan’s relevance due to its location cannot be overemphasized.
Humans who lead the states make the states greedy for power and hegemony.
Likewise, in the domain of science and technology, humans tend to adopt negative benefits even more than the positive intent of the innovators. For instance, information technology revolutionized the concepts of communication to improve connectivity and communicability, in the globalized world. However, its rampant misuse has made it a curse for the relatively poorer and ignorant people. From hacking to data theft, and from disinformation to fake news, is all that is being deployed with innovative information technology.
Social media was developed to bring people of different regions, cultures, and religions together, but today it serves as a weapon of mass manipulation. States use it to target their opponents, whereas Non-State Actors (NSAs) use it for nefarious activities. The majority of political leaders use social media for strategic communication as well as narrative building. Above all, social media is being extensively used for war updates during 21st-century wars. The overdosage of information has blurred the credibility of social media platforms and people have started to doubt the veracity of information flowing in and out of these platforms.
The introduction of TikTok has further polluted the information domain, and Russia-Ukraine has been referred to as the First TikTok War. The social media deployed in the domain of wars and conflict posts some graphics that are not best suited for the society, however, there is hardly any control of the service providers.
In the realm of space, the idea was to enhance and expand communication, travel, tourism, and knowledge, but before people could enjoy its intended benefits, it was deployed negatively by the relatively developed states. The cyber domain is now a Weapon of Mass Disruption. Space has been militarized and perhaps weaponized to a level that accidents and incidents can lead to mass destruction of the universe. However, there is no headway in the domain of space arms control or the regulation of the weaponization of space.
Likewise, the misuse of the emotional linkages between religion and ethnicity has singularly been the cause of numerous wars and conflicts around the globe. Now and then, instances of the misuse of freedom of speech and expression are deployed against Islam and undesired acts by the elements desirous of creating chaos organize events to cause distress and harm to Islam. Similarly, the cultural feelings are hurt of the communities relatively smaller and weaker to agitate them and use this reaction to harm them in their cause.
It is necessary to understand that human nature is more prone to adopting the negative side of development even before humanity can reap the benefits of innovation. Therefore, the regulatory mechanisms must be placed in action before dual-use technologies are marketed to the common man. Moreover, religion must never be allowed to be used to manipulate the sentiments of the people, either through the use of technology or otherwise, and the inflow of such information must be regulated or banned before it can cause harm to a particular segment of society.
The writer has authored three international books: “Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Management Between India and Pakistan” “South Asia Needs Hybrid Peace” and “Understanding Sun Tzu and the Art of Hybrid War.”