Inside the President's bold, courageous endeavor to neutralize the Sino-Russian military alliance by creating a grand geostrategic partnership for peace with Russia to counter Communist China
A good read, and I've used it to forward its message of unilateral entente by the Trump agenda, which is ions from where the leftists here and abroad were capable of delivering while persisting only in the exasperation of this proxy war. The report is in-depth and accurate in its depictions.
This is very interesting and provides a good explanation of what Trump may be up to.
If this is the plan, it will fail for two reasons. It does not account for the nature of the Russian state, and more broadly, it relies on the great man theory of history, which is largely false.
Russia is an extractive state. It funnels the wealth it produces to a small elite which enforces its rule by intimidation and violence. There is no rule of law in Russia since the courts are under the thumb of the executive.
If Russia is granted a sphere of influence, it will impose the same system on the states within that sphere. This is what happened under the Soviet Union and characterised its relationship with eastern europe. This system collapsed because in the end such extractive states ossify, lacking the flexibility to cope with change.
Such a deal will mean the end of the system of international law and human rights. It will represent the abandonment by the US of the cause of freedom and democracy.
And yet the populations of these countries subject to Russian control will not abandon their desire for freedom. The dynamic of history consists of the great swell of peoples as they pursue their own interests and of others who seek to control them. Power is always fragile, because in the end it cannot resist the wish of people to be free. It is democratic states which are able to walk forward with the march of progress.
So a system of global governance which concedes domination to one or two other autocratic states, is inherently unstable. It would represent a great retrenchment by the US and a loss of its animating spirit. That spirit is already attenuated due to its own problems with growing oligarchic and corporate control and the anti-democratic philosophy taking hold in its own elites. So it is no great surprise that this proposal may come out of an administration that appears overwhelmingly concerned with purely commercial considerations. But this strategy represents the machinations of a degenerating democratic civilisation that has forgotten the purpose of its own constitution. It is of course a big step towards isolationism. But it fails to see that it is only one step of many on a path to obscurity.
Also, this plan has nothing to do with "isolationism" a policy that no US leader has ever implemented and that the US has never implemented at any point during its history. In fact, some anti-war activists are spinning it as an anti-China neocon warmonger machination which is, of course, also false. Once again, every superpower has its own de facto sphere of influence whether it is recognized by other powers or not. Recognizing and agreeing to the borders of their spheres of influence is by far the best way to avert the outbreak of a nuclear World War Three in the near future.
In practice, liberal democracies do not go to war against eachother. This is not an accident.
The theory of spheres of influence is in practice, an imperialist theory delimiting spheres of extraction. European colonialism was primarily an extractive exercise. Post WW2 we devised a system that had possibilities to move to a better world. But we have been reverting to straightforward imperialist thinking for some time. This seems to me to be the defining characteristic of "America First" as it is emerging.
I don't agree. Just because a nation has a sphere of influence over another country does not mean it forces its political system on it or even controls it. Russia has a sphere of influence over the entire FSU with the exception of the Baltics whether we like it or not. It is the US decision to attempt to exert an overlapping sphere of influence over Russia's in Ukraine that caused Russia to invade Ukraine. Similarly, the US decision to attempt to exert an overlapping sphere of influence over Taiwan will force it to blockade and invade Taiwan within the next couple years if we do not agree to unification talks this year.
A good read, and I've used it to forward its message of unilateral entente by the Trump agenda, which is ions from where the leftists here and abroad were capable of delivering while persisting only in the exasperation of this proxy war. The report is in-depth and accurate in its depictions.
Glad you liked it.
This is very interesting and provides a good explanation of what Trump may be up to.
If this is the plan, it will fail for two reasons. It does not account for the nature of the Russian state, and more broadly, it relies on the great man theory of history, which is largely false.
Russia is an extractive state. It funnels the wealth it produces to a small elite which enforces its rule by intimidation and violence. There is no rule of law in Russia since the courts are under the thumb of the executive.
If Russia is granted a sphere of influence, it will impose the same system on the states within that sphere. This is what happened under the Soviet Union and characterised its relationship with eastern europe. This system collapsed because in the end such extractive states ossify, lacking the flexibility to cope with change.
Such a deal will mean the end of the system of international law and human rights. It will represent the abandonment by the US of the cause of freedom and democracy.
And yet the populations of these countries subject to Russian control will not abandon their desire for freedom. The dynamic of history consists of the great swell of peoples as they pursue their own interests and of others who seek to control them. Power is always fragile, because in the end it cannot resist the wish of people to be free. It is democratic states which are able to walk forward with the march of progress.
So a system of global governance which concedes domination to one or two other autocratic states, is inherently unstable. It would represent a great retrenchment by the US and a loss of its animating spirit. That spirit is already attenuated due to its own problems with growing oligarchic and corporate control and the anti-democratic philosophy taking hold in its own elites. So it is no great surprise that this proposal may come out of an administration that appears overwhelmingly concerned with purely commercial considerations. But this strategy represents the machinations of a degenerating democratic civilisation that has forgotten the purpose of its own constitution. It is of course a big step towards isolationism. But it fails to see that it is only one step of many on a path to obscurity.
Also, this plan has nothing to do with "isolationism" a policy that no US leader has ever implemented and that the US has never implemented at any point during its history. In fact, some anti-war activists are spinning it as an anti-China neocon warmonger machination which is, of course, also false. Once again, every superpower has its own de facto sphere of influence whether it is recognized by other powers or not. Recognizing and agreeing to the borders of their spheres of influence is by far the best way to avert the outbreak of a nuclear World War Three in the near future.
In practice, liberal democracies do not go to war against eachother. This is not an accident.
The theory of spheres of influence is in practice, an imperialist theory delimiting spheres of extraction. European colonialism was primarily an extractive exercise. Post WW2 we devised a system that had possibilities to move to a better world. But we have been reverting to straightforward imperialist thinking for some time. This seems to me to be the defining characteristic of "America First" as it is emerging.
I don't agree. Just because a nation has a sphere of influence over another country does not mean it forces its political system on it or even controls it. Russia has a sphere of influence over the entire FSU with the exception of the Baltics whether we like it or not. It is the US decision to attempt to exert an overlapping sphere of influence over Russia's in Ukraine that caused Russia to invade Ukraine. Similarly, the US decision to attempt to exert an overlapping sphere of influence over Taiwan will force it to blockade and invade Taiwan within the next couple years if we do not agree to unification talks this year.
With all due respect, keep dreaming.
Furthermore, Russia shares a border with China.
Trump will be gone in 4 years. He can’t undo all of the 60 years of damage.