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G20, Blinken and how US Exceptionalism is running out of time

The big story of the week is the G20 Summit in New Delhi and what it reveals about the new force fields of the multipolar world. With the UN General Assembly meeting next week, the world is walking from the wrecked starship of US diplomacy, the USS Exceptionalism.

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My upcoming book, memoir of a bureaucrat

This week, I finished editing 13 Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writings on Governing, and realised that this collection of essays is also a kind of memoir. It is a way for me to use my own history to live mindfully in the present. Bringing it to publication has made me realise how long… Continue reading My upcoming book, memoir of a bureaucrat

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The Burning Archive Podcast 73. Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and the Russian Enlightenment

As part of the continuing series of telling Russian History backwards and debunking the 'Black Legend of Russian History, Jeff Rich tells the tale of Russia's 18th century when there was one great Emperor and four remarkable Empresses.

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Podcast series of Russian History begins with 65. Black Legend and 66. Gorbachev

I have released two new episodes of The Burning Archive podcast. Episode 65 The Black Legend of Russian History We cannot hope to find peace with Russia unless we seek to understand Russian history in all its complexity, its highs and lows, its tragedies and its farces, its inspirations and its horrors. To understand that… Continue reading Podcast series of Russian History begins with 65. Black Legend and 66. Gorbachev

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Two New Podcasts on Russia and Ukraine

Tonight I released my latest podcast, Please Don't Cancel Russia, episode 60. When in early 2022 Russia decided to invade Ukraine, the Western world especially the Anglo-American World went mad kind of mad - with anger, fury and some justified rage. But it also made a strange attempt not just to restore International Peace, but… Continue reading Two New Podcasts on Russia and Ukraine

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Flowers of the Mind 22

The NATO-Russia War and the last phase of the 100 Years Cold War. Advice on staying sane in an information war, a Kulturkampf. The Great Separation in the Multipolar World. Folly and fraud in Melbourne. Lev Gumilev, and the traditions of Eurasia in Russian thought. Legutko on the demons of liberal democracy, the totalitarian temptation that is collapsing the buildings of the old world order.

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Podcast #13 – Change everything but change itself

The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is https://anchor.fm/jeff-rich4/embed/episodes/13-Change-everything-but-change-itself-e15tipu  and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this episode of the Burning Archive, Jeff Rich completes his 12 part thematic history of our times. Historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto writes about the impact of accelerating change on society over the last 50 years: “Under the… Continue reading Podcast #13 – Change everything but change itself

history, the real world today, Uncategorized

The World Island vs The Atlantic

This year, 2021, may be remembered as a pivot year in world history. Not because of the pandemic. Not only because of the protracted crisis of the American republic. But because of the changed balance of power in international relations brought about by the decrepitude of the American Atlanticist Alliance and the strengthening of the… Continue reading The World Island vs The Atlantic

history, the real world today, Uncategorized

The fall of the American Empire’s Potemkin Province

Thus , in a few blitzkrieg weeks, after the Americans declared they would "draw down their civilian footprint" to meet a publicity deadline of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban have exposed American power and control in Afghanistan as a projection of illusion, a Potemkin Province of an anxious empire in decline.

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Burning Archive Podcast #6 – The true history of the bureaucracy gang

I have posted episode 6 of The Burning Archive Podcast, - the true history of the bureaucracy gang. You can listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple and other platforms. In this episode I discuss the history of the bureaucracy in the UK, USA and Germany, and its relationship to political decay. And I ask,… Continue reading Burning Archive Podcast #6 – The true history of the bureaucracy gang