The Multipolar World

In a statement on Tuesday June 30th 2009, Ahmadinejad called for the end of a bipolar monopoly on global resources and global alliances. His statement seemed to be a policy message on behalf of the new leadership establishment in that Iran is ready to cutoff its dependencies on the two power blocks of the old global order, the East and West. He went on to urge countries with budding economies to rely on their own innovation as a means towards national growth and self-reliance. He said and I quote from press TV, “We want to cooperate with the world using an approach of change to break the global bipolarity in politics, science and all other areas and this should be the ultimate goal of the world.”

But hold on a second, hasn’t the free world been doing that after world war II by drafting up free trade agreements, working towards reducing trade tariffs and barriers, setting up business friendly policies to attract investment and building up dynamic innovation centers as a means to stimulate innovation and creativity that in itself creates jobs and business opportunities?

I think what Mr. Ahmadinejad needs to do is to get out and see the world some more, and with a differ set of glasses. The world is NOT at war anymore and this ideological conflict that’s in his head is just that, it’s in his head.

Iran is in deep economic turmoil with rampant un and under employment of between 18% to 25% depending on whose numbers you look at, has an ailing and inefficient industry across all sectors as a result of 30 years of isolationist policies, has high import and export taxation that slows the flow of goods, a heavily layered bureaucracy that has slowed the economy to a standstill which by the way is one of the root causes of corruption in the country might I add, and to add to all of this a young population that can no longer be contained with political lip service and Friday sermons. If Iran’s leadership is serious about breaking the bipolar world order and its alliance’s my recommendation is for Iran to do the following:

A) Refocus the universities to become more innovation centric.

B) Send graduates off to advanced countries of the world so they can get a better sense of the new world they have to compete in.

C) Create joint venture industry projects by involving industry and industry players from around the world.

D) Create a competitive management environment that rewards creativity, leadership and a sense of responsibility. And most important of all,

E) Build up investor confidence which means taking the right steps to bring about political and social stability in Iran.

With these macro strategies in place Iran can significantly raise its level of competitiveness, create the right incentives to attract investment and knowhow, and build a level playing field for itself. The world we live in today Mr. Ahmadinejad revolves around cooperation and yes competition but unless Iran is ready to change from within, it will never be able to see the changes that are taking place around it.