Economic forces threaten bloody new century-report
Updated 10:20 AM ET November 11, 1999
LONDON (Reuters) - The spread of Western-style economics
could destabilize governments and trigger the bloody birth of
new states in the early years of the new century, a security
consultancy said Thursday.
More than 30 new countries could declare independence by
2020 as multiethnic nations break up under pressure from global
economic forces, Control Risks Group said.
Asian and African nations' pursuit of foreign investment and
International Monetary Fund loans will force them to adopt
Western economic ideas like smaller governments and reduced
public spending.
But that will undermine the means by which they have maintained
political stability, giving more democracy to separatist groups
whose struggles for new states may trigger violence and military
conflict, said Control Risks senior analyst David Lewis.
"The rigors that economic and political liberalization demand will
not make countries more stable, at least in the transition period.
Instead, globalization will be a major cause in the downfall of
governments and the formation of new states and statelets," he
wrote in a report on the risks to multinational companies from
globalization .
Africa, China and the former Soviet Union were among regions
at risk from such pressures.
A survey for the report found only 46 percent of foreign
investors believed they would encounter more risk in the
developing world in the next 10 years, and that the business
threat that most worried them was international sanctions.
They were least worried about pressure group action and
consumer boycotts, even though 86 percent felt consumer
activism would have an increasing impact on their decision
making.
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