Russian Rubicon: Impending Checkmate of the West

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HJ14Ag02.html ^ | Oct 14, 2006 | Sreeram Chaulia

[RusIvan]

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's potential to regain genuine global power has been discounted by many as a conspiracy theory or a remnant of Cold War mentality. With world leaders transfixed on the rise of China, Russia has been relegated to the category of a spent force.

Strategic-forecasting expert and Asia Times Online contributor Joseph Stroupe's new book goes against the tide of Western smugness and makes a brilliant case for sitting up and taking notice of how the Russian bear is opportunistically wrestling to divest the United States of its world hegemony.

Notwithstanding disarming public proclamations, Russia is cutting into US interests around the planet, rolling back "color revolutions" in the post-Soviet space and allying with key powers in Asia, Europe and the Americas that are inimical to Washington. Using the "energy trump card", Moscow is constructing a dense network of like-minded states that is coalescing into a rival pole to counterbalance the US.

[Thunder90]

Russia/Soviet/Coldwar2 PING!!!

To be added or removed from this list, please FReepmail me...

[pppp]

I read Asia Times religiously. They have the tendency to present Russia as a reemerging powerhouse. I disagree with this analysis. As far as I'm concerned Russia is part of the Western/ Christian/ european-originated civilization [I don't know any longer what is the PC name of this culture]For God's sake even communism was a western invention adopted by Bolsheviks. The iron curtain wasn't air prove either. All the western cultural trends, fashion etc reached Russian people with a small time lag. Now Russia has all the illnesses of the West;
1. apathetic people with shortsighted, hedonistic attitude towards life [the only difference is that in EU or US there is more goods consumption and in Russia more alcohol ] unwilling to invest in the future
2. the clientele like attitude towards the state [product of nanny states or years of communist indoctrination]
3. political and business leaders who are selling the future of the nation for few bucks
4. broken institution of the family with resulting demographic collapse and complete fragmentation of the society
5. immigration problems, even more severe than US or EU [the east of Russia is literally taken over by the Chinese population]

Now Russian government is trying to buy influences for itself with oil and gas money. But with collapsing society I don't believe it's a long-lasting investment.
My gut instinct tells me that if the West decide that it doesn't want to commit suicide after all, Russia will survive and prosper as well. If the West sticks to its self-defacing ideology, it will take Russia down the same road.

[pppp]

I read Asia Times religiously. They have the tendency to present Russia as a reemerging powerhouse. I disagree with this analysis. As far as I'm concerned Russia is part of the Western/ Christian/ european-originated civilization [I don't know any longer what is the PC name of this culture]For God's sake even communism was a western invention adopted by Bolsheviks. The iron curtain wasn't air prove either. All the western cultural trends, fashion etc reached Russian people with a small time lag. Now Russia has all the illnesses of the West;
1. apathetic people with shortsighted, hedonistic attitude towards life [the only difference is that in EU or US there is more goods consumption and in Russia more alcohol ] unwilling to invest in the future
2. the clientele like attitude towards the state [product of nanny states or years of communist indoctrination]
3. political and business leaders who are selling the future of the nation for few bucks
4. broken institution of the family with resulting demographic collapse and complete fragmentation of the society
5. immigration problems, even more severe than US or EU [the east of Russia is literally taken over by the Chinese population]

Now Russian government is trying to buy influences for itself with oil and gas money. But with collapsing society I don't believe it's a long-lasting investment.
My gut instinct tells me that if the West decide that it doesn't want to commit suicide after all, Russia will survive and prosper as well. If the West sticks to its self-defacing ideology, it will take Russia down the same road.

[GOP_1900AD]

A truly polycentric world would be just fine, assuming all countries had shared values. Of course my bias is naturally the shared values of Romano Hellenism modified by Judeo Christianity, modified by English Common Law. Well, the chance of the world adopting that uniformly is nil. Therefore, geopolitical power plays reign supreme. And I darn well want to see my own pole of power dominent to the extent practicable.

[GOP_1900AD]

Photo during DPRK visit. Neat.....

[RightWhale]

No one understands the US or even the world economy.

Economy originally referred to household management. Extending this to an entire country is probably pushing the analogy, and to the entire world is probably attempting to describe hallucinations as contact with the supernatural world. There is no world economy even if there appears to be such a thing from time to time.

[A. Pole]

And I darn well want to see my own pole of power dominant to the extent practicable.

Aren't you afraid the great concentration of power in one place would lead to the great corruption and to the loss of freedom?

Did you look into your own motives, like pride and desire of collective glory?

Of course my bias is naturally the shared values of Romano Hellenism modified by Judeo Christianity, modified by English Common Law.

But this "bias" includes the virtue of moderation, of self-restraint and awareness how dangerous the hubris is (look at my tagline). Don't you agree?

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: Aren't you afraid the great concentration of power in one place would lead to the great corruption and to the loss of freedom?

No, in our society, so long as we maintain English Common Law, this is not even a remote possibility. Power is already diffuse in our market oriented society and getting moreso. It is actually somewhat of a problem.

RE: Did you look into your own motives, like pride and desire of collective glory?

I am a practical man. I look mostly at history. Most of the bullets we've dodged were due to our generally pacifist, quasi isolationist tendencies. Any move to try and become more powerful outside our borders gets challenged heavily from within not to mention without. We must exageratedly seek external span of control in order to be effective. In the Clausewitzian sense, our friction is both tangible and esoteric. We uniquely suffer from cultural friction.

RE: But this "bias" includes the virtue of moderation, of self-restraint and awareness how dangerous the hubris is (look at my tagline). Don't you agree?

The only hubris is a hubris that soft power and economics will result in a utopian flat world, and that no blood need be spilled. I am not sure of any innate cultural control of that sort of hubris, in fact, one of our cultural weaknesses is a naive view of human nature and of the behavior of other peoples / tribes / nations that projects our own characteristics onto them. That is certainly dangerous - it is a danger of underestimation of responses of others. More realism is certainly needed in this regard.

[avg_freeper]

I believe that Russia's biggest problem is that our Communists are more dangerous and power hungry than their's were.

[GOPJ]

It's easy to conclude that. Most Russians are Caucasian, and based on their appearance, can easily be mentally lumped in with Western European

Nah, the reason we're so much alike is we both developed the modern technology -- the bomb -- space travel etc. (Ok, both sides got some German help...)

Russians didn't "buy" a bomb from a superior culture and wonder how to make it work - they're not AlQaeda -- AlQaeda's known for more money than brains - much more money than brains.

The fact that the Russians never figured out rule of law and free markets is strange, but, well, that gives us an advantage -- a big one. Who knows, maybe someday we'll work together to control the nutjobs in the ME... In the mean time, of all the forces that might stand toe to toe with us, who would you perfer?

[Leisler]

Trade then.

[RightWhale]

It's more than trade if our factories are in Asia.

[Leisler]

Mercantilist exploitation by rootless cosmopolitans of post-capitalist class division. Whatever.

[GOP_1900AD]

RE:" The fact that the Russians never figured out rule of law and free markets is strange"

The mother of all kleptocracies! ;)

[GOPJ]

The mother of all kleptocracies! ;)

Yep, we get points for that Russian failure -- score a big one for our side...

[GarySpFc]

They are not the enemy, but NATO's actions have moved them so they are no longer our friends.

[JCEccles]

This is Russia, the country with a negative birth rate so profound that it will lose half its population by 2080?

Russia is rapidly falling into demographic insignifance and will this century be defeated by Muslim demons massed on its southern borders.

[JCEccles]

This is Russia, the country with a negative birth rate so profound that it will lose half its population by 2080?

Russia is rapidly falling into demographic insignificance and will this century be defeated by Muslim demons massed on its southern borders.

[Clemenza]

Yeah, a sh-t economy, high rate of alcoholism and abortions, slutty women, a population that is 80% white trash, etc.

Yeah, I would LOVE to have the Russians as an ally/sarcasm.

Russia: An ETERNAL enemy of the American people!

[RusIvan]

Photo during DPRK visit. Neat.....== Thunder90 loves it dearly:)). He think that it is only Putin photo reveal his character:). He just did never see this one: ..