A dangerous geo-strategic and geo-economic vacuum

ON the face of it, there isn't a direct line tying the recent terrorist attacks around the world and the British vote to exit the European Union (EU), or Brexit.

The terrorist acts in Tel-Aviv, Orlando, Istanbul, Dhaka and Baghdad were either coordinated or inspired by radical Islamic groups the likes of the Islamic State (IS). They are part of a threat to the geo-strategic balance of power, originating in the unstable Middle East. The goal of the killers is to terrorise citizens and harm the interests of their governments, while spreading their interpretation of Islam and winning converts to their cause.

The decision by British voters to withdraw from the EU has been driven by growing disenchantment among the economically squeezed members of the middle class in the United Kingdom, with the so-called neo-liberal project promoted by their political and economic elites. Brexit may not be the kind of geo-strategic threat posed by the IS, but it does present a major geo-economic challenge that not only creates risky uncertainty in the financial markets, but could also encourage other members to exit the EU and strengthen the power of those political forces that target free trade and immigration in the West, leading eventually to the collapse of the entire globalisation project.