Ours is indeed a broken world! And if you're reading this, it's likely you're among the rapidly increasing number of people throughout the world who are asking how we got to these times of confrontation. And, like the author, you may well be asking how we could move towards a new era of cooperation, essential if we are to overcome the twin challenges of climate change and over-population which threaten the very survival of mankind. John Pedler first shows how, since the two World Wars, we have arrived at our disjointed epoch: its rash of wars and civil wars, its scattering of religious and military dictatorships, its oligarchy of international billionaires and vast corporations, its crushing poverty, its epidemics, and its resurgence of religious violence. As a British diplomat and diplomatic consultant, war correspondent in Vietnam, businessman in Mao's China, first Director of the Cambodia Trust, adviser to the government in Sarajevo during the siege, John Pedler has for over half a century had a ringside seat at the world's circus. Here he shares not only his experiences but the conclusions he has reached - both about 'the material world' and what he terms 'the beyond' - with a close look at the religious intolerance and violence now plaguing so many countries. This book is written for the general reader worldwide - those who haven't got the time to study the mass of expert information on these subjects, nor to visit the key countries involved. But diplomats and others in world affairs will also find quite a bit of interest - a fresh 'take' filling some gaps in their knowledge. It is also written for the young in particular - for they will have to deal with our mistakes. It will not quickly date for it shines a spotlight well into the future. John Pedler was educated in England, the United States, and at the London School of Economics where he took an additional course in Comparative Religion.
About the Author: John Pedler is a former British diplomat now a diplomatic consultant. He has been closely involved with world affairs for more than half a century. On leave of absence he was a war correspondent in Vietnam the year of the Têt uprisings. He has a particular interest in China which he visited twelve years running during Mao's Cultural Revolution. As a consultant, among other briefs, he worked for the Cambodian government after the expulsion of the Khmer Rouge, and for the Bosnian government during the siege of Sarajevo. Since 1990 his top priority has been the twin existential threats of climate change and over-population. In 2002 he warned that an invasion of Iraq could lead to the destabilisation of the entire Middle East. After that disaster he worked for John Kerry's, and Barack Obama's campaigns for the US Presidency. Currently he's involved with UK/EU relations ('Brexit'), and with EU/Russia relations (Ukraine and Syria). This year - 2016 - he is once again concerned to see a Democrat returned to the White House. John Pedler studied comparative religion when at the prestigious London School of Economics, so the second part of 'Our Broken World' looks at religious intolerance and religious violence - which now plagues a large part of the world. He works in France with a long-suffering wife and a large unruly garden. His adult children, the answers to whose questions form the substance of this book, all live in London with their children.