As the days, weeks and months go by we see the quickening pace of global change away from the unipolar moment (as Prof. John J. Mearsheimer describes it) toward the multipolar future. The USA, UK and EU have dominated the planet since the end of the mass rape of our planet’s resources that was the colonial era. Within the colonial era they also played their part of course but it is since that time that an added emphasis has been provided through ever-increasing technological advances in the fields of commerce and the military.
I enjoy your writing and generally found your views consistent with observable if unpleasant realities.
However, agglomerating all the negative outcomes that have occurred to the world over the last 200 years and laying it at the feet of the collective West is a bit much. Certainly, it's not unique historically. They are the result of technological developments that mostly European societies were most able to take advantage due to largely random cultural development starting with the separation of church and state. Other parts of the world have had their time of prominence where they also behaved abominably. In the case of Russia and most of Eurasia, think Mongols and the massive devastation they wrought that beggars (in % or relative terms) that of the collective West even with 2 world wars and colonialization. And along with the negatives, there have been benefits. In the most general and indisputable measures of human welfare there has been massive improvement: there are more of us and we live longer than ever dreamt tin the past. This is the result of the same technological innovation that gave rise to the temporary pre-eminence of the West. Now that is fading as was inevitable.
In the case of Russia, Russia has far more in common with the West than China. It's a tragi-comedy that US leaders cannot seem to see the obvious: Russia is the natural and essential ally in the containment of a much greater common foe, China. But to be fair the US hasn't had a statesman leader since Bush1. Since then, the US has been led by politicians whose primary concern is that of the next election. From a Russian perspective, China is the enduring, long-term geo-strategic rival - the US is thousands of miles away and has no real national interest. That is not the case with China. The irony is that the US is midwifing the birth a new Russo-Sino Pact - supergluing the largest natural resources consumer with the largest natural resources provider. Historians will consider this time and this issue as a pivotal abject failure on the part of Western leaders, mostly that of the US. Hopefully a future change in the leadership of both countries will allow for a reproachment between Russia and the US.
I enjoy your writing and generally found your views consistent with observable if unpleasant realities.
However, agglomerating all the negative outcomes that have occurred to the world over the last 200 years and laying it at the feet of the collective West is a bit much. Certainly, it's not unique historically. They are the result of technological developments that mostly European societies were most able to take advantage due to largely random cultural development starting with the separation of church and state. Other parts of the world have had their time of prominence where they also behaved abominably. In the case of Russia and most of Eurasia, think Mongols and the massive devastation they wrought that beggars (in % or relative terms) that of the collective West even with 2 world wars and colonialization. And along with the negatives, there have been benefits. In the most general and indisputable measures of human welfare there has been massive improvement: there are more of us and we live longer than ever dreamt tin the past. This is the result of the same technological innovation that gave rise to the temporary pre-eminence of the West. Now that is fading as was inevitable.
In the case of Russia, Russia has far more in common with the West than China. It's a tragi-comedy that US leaders cannot seem to see the obvious: Russia is the natural and essential ally in the containment of a much greater common foe, China. But to be fair the US hasn't had a statesman leader since Bush1. Since then, the US has been led by politicians whose primary concern is that of the next election. From a Russian perspective, China is the enduring, long-term geo-strategic rival - the US is thousands of miles away and has no real national interest. That is not the case with China. The irony is that the US is midwifing the birth a new Russo-Sino Pact - supergluing the largest natural resources consumer with the largest natural resources provider. Historians will consider this time and this issue as a pivotal abject failure on the part of Western leaders, mostly that of the US. Hopefully a future change in the leadership of both countries will allow for a reproachment between Russia and the US.