An Interesting Time in History

I remember when I was about 10-12 years old, and the summers would drag on and on. By the end of August, I was ready for school to start, since it was a boring time to be a kid.

Fast forward to the end of 2024 and there is little that is boring about what is going on around the world today. If I was to sum it up in one word it might be chaotic! This is the era that we are in today.

A declaration of Martial Law in South Korea. France having political troubles shortly after an election. Right wing parties on the rise in many European countries including Sweden of all places, Italy, Germany, etc. You also now have Russia, North Korea and Iran aligning themselves politically and militarily.

Then there are regional wars, in Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine continuing, the Middle East with Israel fighting in Lebonon and Gaza. More recently, Syrian rebels launching an attack against the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship. Over in Asia China is positioning itself to establish its own hegemony over that region of the Pacific. If you look for another area of the globe that has not seen conflict yet…I’d look at the artic as one future place where nations are going to rub shoulders with one another and perhaps not in a friendly way.

All of the above is “unsettling” for stability in the world. I look back to the 1930’s and how many of these same dynamics were in play coming out of the Great Depression. We have the annual earthquake drill we call “Great Shakeout” every year in October. I think there is another “great global shakeout” in process.

The nexus for emergency management is that the civil defense efforts from 1950-1990 may need to be dusted off and updated for a new world order that is still being put into motion.