Kees VAN DER PIJL is a political scientist. He worked at the University of Amsterdam and from 2000, was professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex, UK, retiring in 2012. His books include The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class (1984, new edition 2012), and Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq (2006). Since his retirement he has published Flight MH17, Ukraine and the New Cold War (2018) and States of Emergency. Keeping the Global Population in Check (2022) based on Pandemie van de angst (2021). translated into several other languages. He has also edited a few collections, most recently The Militarization of the European Union (2021, just out in paperbackl). His latest book is De tragedie van Oekraine (2023).
War and migration have always hung together but in our time the connection has become qualitatively different. War has moved from being a dynastic and territorial matter to imperialist conflict over raw materials and trade routes. In the West today, besides serving as a means to preserve the social order, military-industrial complexes wage war for economic and social self-maintenance which is why it never ends. Simultaneously, migration has become an instrument of war and (proxy) war-making entities such as al Qaeda/ISIS migrate.