Challenges of the 21st Century and Ways to Cope with Them
The famous writer Yuval Noah Harari writes in his famous book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" that,
"We should never underestimate human stupidity, both on the personal and on the collective level, humans are drawn to engage in self-destructive activities"
- Yuval Noah Harari
This is what I believe is the biggest challenge in the 21st century, mankind itself. It is worth noting that this is not the only challenge in the 21st century but it is the biggest of all. As it gives birth to other millions of challenges, which include climate change, national security, cybercrime, terrorism, wars, chaos, and a lot of others. How to cope with these challenges and where we stand in the year 2023 are the discussions we want to carry inside this article.
1. Challenge of 5th Generation or Hybrid Warfare.
The start of the 21st century witnessed a major shift in the paradigm of world security as in the age of the 21st century. As there emerged a war that is formed beyond the war field the war that was camp as a 5th generation war replaced the traditional warfare and indulged countries in various other new modern tactics to counter their appointments and the superpowers of the world. This modern-day war evolved further and turned into 6th generation hybrid warfare, that uses various non-kinetic. And non-conventional strategies such as cyber attacks, disinformation, propaganda, psychological operations, and many more. This modern-day hybrid warfare is one of the key challenges in the 21st century.
2. Environmental challenge:
The world is a common habitat for all humans, but in the 21st century keeping its environment safer and sustainable is one of the biggest challenges. Human activities - which are termed as "stupidity" by Yuval Noah Harari - have caused a lot of damage to the environment of the planet. As a result, global climate change is not only witnessed by many countries but also affected many regions in the form of torrential rainfalls, disastrous floods, and extreme heat waves. For instance, in July 2023 India witnessed heavy rainfalls and floods throughout the country, due to climate change. on the other hand, Europe is facing massive heat waves. As July 2023 brought the hottest week on the earth ever. Whereas these same sorts of heat waves caused an estimated 61,000 deaths in Europe alone, in 2022, as cited by the world metrological organization (WMO).
3. The challenge of Less-Resources and overpopulation:
The world has just crossed the mark of eight billion population at the end of year 2022. With a growing population, there is a challenge of resources being depleted. Therefore the world is facing a tremendous economical downfall. As the demand for the resources is much higher than the resources itself. Along with the increased population, other factors such as environmental effects and conflicts among the regions are also contributing to the major economical downfall making it a huge challenge for humans in the 21st century.
4. Economical Inequality and Disparity:
Economic disparity in the 21st century has touched new heights making it one of the biggest challenges of the modern Era. The current situation of economic disparity can be analyzed by the world inequality report of 2022 by the IMF, which states that
"The Richest 10% of the global population currently take home 52% of all income, while the poorest half got just 8.5%". It also quotes that, "The Richest 10% owns 76% of global wealth, while the bottom poor class owns only 2% of the wealth, (remaining is owned by the middle class). These states are enough to realize the level of economic disparity, making it one of the biggest challenges and the 21st century.
5. Nationalism vs Globalization debate:
The nationalism vs Globalisation debate is One of the major challenges in the 21st century, from my perspective. As countries are indulged in prioritizing their national goals over broader global interests. This is what leads to other major challenges in the 21st century. For instance, global climate change, which is one of the biggest challenges of all time, can not be combatted without global cooperation. While even this sort of a challenge with severe impacts has become a target of the Nationalism vs Globalization debate.As countries started climate politics for their national interest undermining the broader global interest. One can quote Trump's "America first" narrative against global cooperation on the issue of climate change, as an example. Hence it is clear that prioritizing national interest over global interest is one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century.
How to Cope with These Challenges:
1. Mature Leadership:
A leader is the mind of the nation. Without a good mind, the body doesn't respond or function properly. A good and mature leader for a nation is as much necessary as the mind is for a body. Therefore, to cope with these modern-day challenges, good leadership with a productive and positive mindset, at the global level, is required. One can understand the necessity and the role of leadership in combating these modern-day challenges by considering the example of American Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Barack Obama, being president of the United States, was keen to combat the climate challenge and mitigate its effects. Therefore, in 2015 he united the developed and developing world for the cause, making it a historical contribution on the eve of the Paris Agreement. Donald Trump, on the other hand, after becoming the president, withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, in 2017. This caused a huge blow to global cooperation in mitigating the effects of climate change. This is how crucial the role of leadership is, in combating the challenges of the 21st Century.
2. Global cooperation:
To cope with the challenges of the 21st century, global Cooperation is an important aspect. As this can help mitigate global climate change, reduce economic disparity, overcome the nationalization vs globalization debate, and ensure better and more prosperous living.
3. Role of Regional Blocks:
Regional blocks such as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), and UNO (United Nations Organization) have the potential to play their role in uniting the world on a single platform and help combat these modern challenges of the 21st century. However, Although these organizations have achieved tremendous milestones in different fields and tasks, they struggled to bring the world to the same page for the broader global interest.
Conclusion:
Conclusively, In the 21st century, there exist various challenges for mankind. For which, human activities can be blamed. As Human activities contain some sort of stupidity which later on give birth to numerous challenges. In this article, we discussed some of the top challenges of the 21st Century that are faced by the human species on the planet Earth along with the tactics for combating them.
