Spengler: Kissinger Invokes Hobbesian State of Nature

David Goldman, whose nom-de-plume is Spengler, writes approvingly for PJ Media of Henry Kissinger's London Sunday Times op-ed essay. Goldman quotes Kissinger as writing:

Zones of non-governance or jihad now stretch across the Muslim world, affecting Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mali, Sudan and Somalia. When one also takes into account the agonies of central Africa — where a generations-long Congolese civil war has drawn in all neighbouring states, and conflicts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan threaten to metastasise similarly — a significant portion of the world’s territory and population is on the verge of falling out of the international state system altogether.

As this void looms, the Middle East is caught in a confrontation akin to — but broader than — Europe’s 17th-century wars of religion. Domestic and international conflicts reinforce each other. Political, sectarian, tribal, territorial, ideological and traditional national-interest disputes merge. Religion is “weaponised” in the service of geopolitical objectives; civilians are marked for extermination based on their sectarian affiliation.

Goldman loves Kissinger's reference to the 30 Years War, which Goldman believes is the closest analog to the current Middle East Sunni-Shia bloodbath.