A call for colonisation

In a stable and orderly world, the economy flourishes. In an efficient and well-governed world, the markets are open for investment and growth.

A government unable to meet these standards suggests economic risks for the whole world, not just for one country. It signifies a weak government. A government resting on inefficient economic policies, fiscal deficits, balance of payments, inflation, unemployment, poverty… Everything that stands in the way of a brighter future for everyone.

To the advanced economies of the world, a weak government is in need of correction. Even rescue. It calls for the re-establishment of economic order in a world of chaos. It calls for a crusade for prosperity… Even if this crusade means using coercive forces to deal with the economic disorder in another country. It calls for help from the outside – a foreign hand, so to speak. And, of course, the advanced economies of the world are there to see this through.

Robert Cooper, now a diplomat and foreign affairs advisor to the European Union but reputed to have been a great inspiration to Tony Blair, had once said: “The most logical way to deal with chaos, and the one most employed in the past is colonisation.” But today, he acknowledges, the old-school colonisation of the imperial British isn’t enough. It requires better packaging. According to Cooper, “What is needed then is a new kind of imperialism, one acceptable to a world of human rights and cosmopolitan values.”

[Citation: Apects of India's Economy]