Credit crisis could lead to riots
The global economic crisis could lead to riots and violence unless governments introduce major reforms, a thinktank has warned.
According to a study from Oxford Research Group, the global financial crisis is the most dangerous current threat to international security.
Author Professor Paul Rogers, of the University of Bradford, believes the immediate response from authorities will be to concentrate on the immediate problems affecting their economies.
“Instead, the opportunity should be taken to introduce fundamental economic reforms which reverse the wealth-poverty divisions that have got so much worse in the past three decades,” Professor Rogers has advised.
Trade reform, debt cancellation and substantial aid for sustainable development are all required to avoid a much more divided global system, which could otherwise lead to violent protest, the report said.
The effects of climate change, especially on poorer communities, are also likely to exacerbate the socio-economic divisions, Prof Rogers added.
“We are facing the deepest economic crisis for two generations,” he said.
“We can either respond as a global community or as a narrow group of rich and powerful countries. The choice we make in the next few months will do much to decide whether the world becomes more or less peaceful over the next ten years.”
