Chapter 1: Why “Property” - Foreign Military Studies Office - U.S. Army

stylizations and relative ones at that. Japan is in the West and Chile inthe North. I use West and Western in this book as admittedly lazyshorthand.) This book says flatly that unless this one area of Westernsuccess -- formalized property -- is actively exported, the West’s goodintentions will be paid in disappointment.On occasion, as in Iraq after the takedown of the Husseinregime, a window of opportunity presents itself during which the oldstatus quo of ownership is weak, when basic changes in a propertyregime can be more speedily implemented. At such times, property canbe formalized and liberalized by external influence and action. 11 If inIraq, Haiti, or places like them, the property regime is not formalizedwhile the opportunity presents itself, there will be less likelihood ofsuccess in setting those societies on a path toward whatever goals ofsocietal engineering the West might wish for them. There exists a moreaggressive aspect as well, a Big Brother aspect that must be weighedcarefully for better and worse. Formal records – transparent,comprehensive and accurate – allow for control, for enforcement, forpunishment. At best they represent the ability of the public to ensuretax equity, environmental protection, debt responsibility, forensicefficiency and government accountability. At worst, and especiallywhen the quality of transparency is missing, precise records are anothertool in the service of repression and tyranny, exposing individualwealth and whereabouts to government abuse.rich (the West) and two-thirds poor (the Third World or South). In this picture,extreme poverty is the common and distinguishing characteristic of the Third World.But there is a continuous range in the per capita incomes of countries. The absence ofa distinct break in the series undermines the concept of a Third World demarcatedfrom the West on the basis of per capita incomes. The line of division between richand poor countries is quite arbitrary. One could equally well say that the world istwo-thirds rich and one-third poor.” Ibid at p. 40.11 Meanwhile, we should recover Geography itself as a lead discipline for matters ofstate, because the object of ownership, and of most armed struggles is, after all, aplace. Property, as a subject of study, provides a link between law and geography. Itis simultaneously the link between economics and strategy in assessing andaddressing internal conflicts, allowing precise assignment of relative value toterritory.13