A New World Organizing Principle

Demographer Joel Kotkin has an intriguing article in New Geography entitled "The New World Order." His basic thesis is that the world is sorting itself out into ethnic/religious groupings that make nation states less important. He says:

Across the world a resurgence of tribal ties is creating more complex global alliances. Where once diplomacy defined borders, now history, race, ethnicity, religion, and culture are dividing humanity into dynamic new groupings.

I believe Kotkin leaves out some interesting tribal groupings like the Kurds who live across three nations. I would have added Switzerland to his New Hansa grouping, but an argument can be made for it being the Stand-Alone he calls it.

Kotkin's tour d'horizon is certainly worth reading, and I suspect he has a lot of it correct. See what you think.