Colonial wars are back

The way world leaders have been behaving in recent items, it seems that a new world order is in the offing. Developed countries are in a constant state of war, reminding us of the colonial wars of the 17th and 18th centuries with a new set of principles.

Multinational companies and tech giants are the new colonial powers shaping the world. The new tools of war are chips and semi-conductors; information technology (IT); artificial intelligence (AI); tariffs and taxes; and supply chains. A new race is currently at its peak to colonize developing countries through the tools of the developed world. Intra-group rivalries are part of the game.

The era of neocolonialism is going to culminate in the form of new technological invasions, potentially exploiting third-world countries lacking the resources and vision to lead. The developed world is in perfect competition to overpower each other through new tools of war to rule over developing countries. That is the brief reason for chip wars and the introduction of trade restrictions on EVs by the US/EU against China. Trade and technological wars may take longer to conclude. The larger question is not who will get edge over the other but where the buck will stop.

A new class of technology elite is emerging to monopolize global trade and businesses. Chips and semiconductors are the lynchpin of all these new-found technologies. Batteries have found pivotal importance in running machines, transforming the world. Chip-empowered AI apps have gained the status of king in the technological world. Rich and advanced countries, especially the US, Russia, China and EU countries, are in a race to leave behind their competitors by monopolizing chip and semiconductor technologies. There is no doubt that tech elites will rule the world in the future.

Those days are gone when the military used to rule over the world. Now the security paradigm has changed from the traditional mechanism to economic prowess. All strategic arms programmes — right from missile technology to nuclear buttons — are connected or interconnected to modern software technologies. The world and is undergoing rapid transformations owing to technological advancement. This is why the US Congress passed legislation to block/unblock chip technology, aiming at stopping China in the field of semiconductors. The CHIPS Acts passed by the US and the EU carry a lot of investment in this technology to safeguard their interests and maintain their superiority over the world.

Besides other tactics, the US and EU are imposing new tariffs and taxes on Chinese products, particularly cost-effective EVs from China, to protect their industries from Chinese products. This is really interesting to note that those who were once proponents of free trade through the WTO are now installing new tariff barriers against low-cost Chinese EVs and other products. They are doing so to maintain their superficial superiority against all norms of open market operations through a free trade mechanism alleging that the Chinese government is subsidizing its products.

The trade war with China has reached such a high scale that the last G7 Summit had a special agenda to discuss Chinese EVs to restrict imports from China — obviously to scale back its trade and economic progress. This is another effort by the West to keep its role as the master of the world, dominating developing countries, keeping them at bay, and obviously treating them like their colonies.

Americans have been pressurizing South Korea to stop exporting chips and semiconductors to China in a streak of a new cold war against China. China and South Korea have had almost a monopoly over lithium-based batteries, chips and semiconductors being used for EVs and AI technologies. The Quad and AUKUS alliances are also against China, but the central point in all these developments is the use of AI technology covering nuclear submarines and push-up buttons on missiles. The Ukraine war is also a war of technology, as we see targets being hit by the Russian Army or Ukrainian soldiers with the support and capability of new war technologies, whether these are fighter jets or tanks or missiles.

AI-based technologies are the future of all developed and advanced countries to rule the world. Tech companies working in the field of AI systems are busy today evolving or building large language models to achieve mastery. It is a race against time to see how fast one could use AI technologies, monopolizing businesses right from medicines and industrial outputs to warships.

That time is not too far if we look at new developments in AI-backed software technologies. This is why almost all software companies and big giants are investing a lot in these technologies to compete with ChatGPT-like systems to capture the market. There is a long list of AI companies investing in software systems backed by artificial intelligence to capture the global market.

Prominent companies are Amazon, Microsoft, Open AI, Google, Apple, Baidu, CloudMinds, IBM, Nividia, DataRobot Inc, Dataiku, DeepMind, Veritone and SoundHound. They are leaders in artificial intelligence and machine learning. They are right now investing billions of dollars to capture the markets. Western countries and China are in tough competition to win the race.

The most important question about technology elites is whether China or the Western world will lead the new world order. The US and its Western allies, including Nato countries, are all out against China to lead in the field of economy and security. Who will set the new world order in place to capture world businesses and markets? The years ahead will witness a new race in the fields of technology led by AI companies to dominate the world. Those who will cooperate and facilitate the world by providing free AI products or services at affordable rates coupled with a smooth supply chain mechanism will capture the markets.

Technological advancements and ensuing trade wars between tech-elite countries are destined to make developing countries their subservient states, complying with the orders and directions of their new colonial masters. The new colonies will not be physically occupied, but rather will be economically exploited through new war tools.

The tactics and strategic approach of the US and EU and their allied developed countries vis-a-vis China and Russia are almost the same as they used to be in colonial wars. Only the tools of war are transformed and changed in the new world order. The exploiters of today are tech giants and multinational companies owned by the US/EU and China/Russia.

Apparently, old colonial wars are back with new technological and tactical moves to dominate the world. Developed countries are at war like old colonial powers used to be to occupy territories. This time the war theatre is almost the same with new tools of war to dominate the world and exploit less- or least-developed countries to the maximum. Developing countries need to be united against all sorts of exploitation, as technology knows no bounds; IT neither has friends nor foes.

The writer is a former additional secretary and can be reached at: hassanbaig2009@gmail.com