It is as if we are playing a game of baseball, according to Vaill, in which anybody can move the bases anywhere anytime the ball is hit. To cope with rapidly shifting contexts, we need citizens and employees who are quick on their feet . . . We need employees and citizens with a change ethic . We see a world turned upside down and inside out by recent events in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Enemies become friends.
Friends become enemies.
The apparent winners of World War II become the apparent losers in an economic war while the former Axis Powers flourish. As power shifts in Europe, the foundations of NATO and decades worth of military strategies come tumbling down like a deck of cards blown by the winds of change. Security, once measured by the number of ICBM's and tanks, is now defined in some regions in terms of economic and social health. Empty shelves, trade deficits and national debts undermine public confidence and stability, drive the political agenda and determine who shall come to power. To Russians, for example, bread has become a more important policy issue than guns.