The Smart Cities War
We are all aware that wars have always existed around the world, ever since men have considered themselves individuals. In many cases, fratricidal wars are genetically linked to Cain, the Biblical preface to the eternal unhappiness of “no peace among men”.
And behold, despite everything, we continue to evolve. To grow, to innovate, to create art and innovation, in spite of wars, conflicts and increasing dehumanization, cruelty and totalitarianism that grows even in the western and supposedly democratic world, as the management of the pandemic has shown in some places.
We know that the stages of the battles were not always the same. In the open field, in the mountains, or in the forest, there have been several wars won and lost with the use of orography interpretation and strategic anticipation or obvious inevitability. I recall one of the places I had the urge to visit when I lived in Greece: the Thermopylae, which was the alleged stage of the spectacular metaphorical (and now romanticized by cinema) resistance of the 300 Spartans led by Leonidas who held out for as long as it took to reorganize forces against the Persian invasion, becoming martyrs and symbols of resistance to the shadows of totalitarianism.
n more recent wars, the city has become the most common venue. The use of civilians as human shields and the shock of media coverage by the image and live testimony on TV’s contributed to the fact that, on the sides that resist an invasion, there are more and more confining themselves to urban areas, where guerrilla tactics, practiced in different latitudes and hot zones of the globe, have become instruction manuals for a war of nerves and combat against enemy morale.
Already in the 20th century, cities were the most usual stage for wars and armed conflicts in the world. In the 21st century, in addition to the conventional, we have added another layer of cyber and electronic conflict that confirms, by recent events, that the world entered several years ago into a totally different kind of war.
We may have more or less realized this in 2016 when Donald Trump won the election in the United States of America (USA) and started a trade hostility against the “wannabe superpower,” China.
Meanwhile, despite everything, China has become the world’s second economic power. And, if we look at the most diverse data and projections from specialized agencies and entities, it may soon dethrone the Americans from this hegemonic leadership.
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The repercussions and political consequences of such an achievement will be devastating for the Western world which has always promoted values of freedom, tolerance, and equality. Hence perhaps no one is surprised that there is an ongoing trade and geostrategic ‘conflict’ in the last decade.
The emergence of the pandemic in 2020 provoked different reactions in the world and, when we were still trying to get out of a complex and delicate problem of public health management mixed with behavioural science, behold, in 2022, Russia decides to invade Ukraine, continuing in an escalation of the conflict that has been unfolding in a bloody way since 2014 in the Donbas region.
After the events of 2014, with the so-called “Revolution for Dignity” by Euromaidan, municipal governments also started a process of change.
Ukraine heralded as the new Silicon Valley
Before the events of this year, Ukraine had been promoted in entrepreneurship and innovation circles as a hub with enormous potential for technological fields. In 2016, it was even referred to as the country “with the greatest potential not only in Europe but in the world, with the installation of innovation and research centres linked to renowned corporations such as Aricent, Boeing, Ericsson, Oracle or Siemens.