Vol. 7 No. 2 (2006)

Pre-emptive wars, climate change, bacterial and viral pandemics, and the unstable global economy all find their roots in the rush of development and the capital-centered, commodity-centered economy of the modern state system. Socialism and capitalism are the modern systems of economy directly connected to the various threats that now dominate regional and global affairs. These economic theories buttress the modern system of states that was established by the Roman Catholic Church negotiated Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that is now tested as it has never been tested before. Teetering on the brink of breakdown, the many of the world’s states are either bankrupt, ruled by narco-criminal regimes, or have simply collapsed all-together.

The most observable aspect of the state-system breakdown is recognized as environmental breakdown—pollution, commodification of plant, animal and other forms of life and the disruption of cultural societies in the Fourth World. Contributors to this issue of the Fourth World Journal touch on some of the central
controversies involved in environmental breakdown. Enactment of international property rights agreements that states’ governments fail to enforce contribute to threats to the global commons by systematically undermining Fourth World cultures. Corporations overwhelm or buy-out states’ governments to gain access to Fourth World lands and resources. Wars are preemptively launched in violation of the United Nations Charter resulting in substantial environmental damage as well as cultural dislocation of Fourth
World nations.