The tolling of the bell for the American dream of a single world order, made in its own image, however does not mean the story of an expanding BRICS is the rise of a new hegemon. The multipolar world is becoming less unruly, and more plural. But who is King Canute, resisting the tide of history?
Tag: geopolitics
Landmarks of a changing world: 2023 BRICS Summit and India on the Moon
No doubt the big story of the multipolar world this week was the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. It even managed to feature the Indian space mission landing on the moon Narendra Modi was gracious enough to declare this an achievement of the plural world.
Niger as the preamble to BRICS Summit
The military government in Niger is still standing, and the West African states have delayed, stalled and strung along the USA and EU powers that are demanding, away from cameras, a military counter-coup to restore Western democratic rule in Africa.
Australia’s minor power mentality.
There has been a growing debate in Australia over its subservient defence and security relationship with the USA. This debate is also leading into a meeting next week, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) national conference.
What if Russia Wins?
So, it seems reasonable at least to ask: what will happen in the West if Russia wins the war in Ukraine?
How Lenin on the Train began a 100 Years War
Catherine Merridale, Lenin on the Train (2016), which I finished reading last night, is a very fine book. It is a gem, and perhaps ought to be recommended as among the very best introductions to the history of the Russian Revolution.
Chronicles of the Third World War?
There is a war across many states to shape the institutions of the multipolar world. The Atlantic elites have declared this war in the name of democracy, and with too little regard for the consequences for the citizens of the world. This conflict will last a long time, maybe five to ten years, unless, that is, there is a rapid collapse of political order in the United States of America. Currently this war is undertaken across all dimensions - military, economic, information/narrative and diplomacy. And the war is most intense on the economic front. But how long will the military proxy war and economic war continue, and will they broaden?
Colour Revolution on a Chaise-Longue
I took to reading Catherine Merridale, Lenin on the Train (2016) this morning while reclining on a scarlet chaise-longue and bathing in autumnal sunshine. The cat was on my lap, but my attention kept slipping.... [Read More]
Flowers of the Mind 25
This debate from a major show in India gives a good insight into how the USA has alienated Indian elites. It is one event in an rushing cascade of intellectual revolt against the Anglo-American world, against the Netflix stream of American thinking about the world, diplomacy, democracy, economics etc. The world is saying: America, look at me, I am the captain now.
Flowers of the Mind 24
So much of the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the tragic encounters of the elites of empires and ethno-linguistic national identities. We are seeing a new version of this struggle between confected social media national identities, concealing troubled and exclusive ethno-lingusitic reasoning, and collapsing imperial orders.
Flowers of the Mind 23
A new iron curtain is falling across the "Western" or Anglo-American world. This time curtain is not being brought down by a reincarnated Russian empire. It is being brought down by a failing empire of lies, the media-theatre state of the Global American Empire, spiralling into a dynastic collapse.
Ukraine Crisis Shows Fault Lines of Multipolar World
We are not entering World War III, I think, I hope, I insist on believing. But we are entering the final phase of the Hundred Years Cold War of the Anglo-American Powers against Russia. My forecast is that the system of power that has led this war will collapse, perhaps surprisngly quickly, but likely over five to ten years. Seven great fault lines are cracking open during the Ukraine crisis that will shape the social, political, cultural and international orders we navigate through.
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.
Flowers of the Mind 20
Descent into post-democratic crisis. John Ionnadis on saving democracy from the pandemic. Canada leaves the democratic nations - an Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Australia. Security crisis in Ukraine and the end of the Cold War - who really wants to invade Europe? The Russian Anxiety and our responsibility to refuse it
Flowers of the Mind 19
American elites wag the dogs of war as the post-democratic theatre burns. Liz Truss in Moscow: the disgrace of the British State. Journalists behaving like spin doctors and government propagandists again. Isabella of Castile and the Spanish Empire. The strangeness of the children of Ash and Elm. The uncontrollability of the world, and the true words of John Donne on public health rulez, OK?
Flowers of the Mind 18
Operation Barbarossa and war on the Eastern Front in World War II and its relevance to popular memory and geopolitics. Joint statement of Xi-Putin summit comments on history of WWII. The Anglo-American illusions of Munich: the edge of war. Russophobia and the collapse of Anglo-American diplomacy.
Flowers of the Mind 17
A holiday of regeneration. The crisis in Europe, Ukraine, the failure of American diplomacy and the end of NATO. The Siege of Leningrad, Vladimir Putin, Operation Barbarossa, and Dmitri Likhachev on the Russian Soul. Elena Shvarts and the Flora of Ukraine. Russian Ark and the survival of culture in the floating hermitage of the Neva.
Flowers of the Mind 13
Dominic Lieven, Napoleon vs Russia, and the eastward expansion of NATO. The Hundred Years Cold War. Mary Sarotte, Not One Inch, James Baker and Mikhail Gorbachev. Totalitarianism and public health.
Flowers of the Mind 8.
Beowulf, polyphony and Mikhail Bakhtin. RussiaGate indictments approach the spider. Peter Frankopan and Fiona Hill. Jordan B Peterson. Elena Shvarts. Jonathon Sumption on how fear has undone democracy.
Flowers of the Mind 2. Ochpaniztli (week 4) 2021
Emily Dickinson, Vaclav Havel, Revolution in Military Affairs, the fall of the Anglo-American Ascendancy, Vale Angelo Codevilla, Boris Pasternak