Category: GeoPolitics
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Ukraine Crisis - Protesters in Lviv Raise the Stakes / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
As the standoff in Independence Square continues in Kiev, the western part of Ukraine has added a more serious element to the country's internal struggle. On Wednesday, several administration buildings were taken over by protesters in the west, including in Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhhorod and Ternopil. Meanwhile, demonstrators from an opposition group called People's Rada in Lviv, the largest and most important city in the west, said on Wednesday that they want to declare independence from Ukraine.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
New Dimensions of U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Russia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
The struggle for some of the most strategic territory in the world took an interesting twist this week. Last week we discussed what appeared to be a significant shift in German national strategy in which Berlin seemed to declare a new doctrine of increased assertiveness in the world -- a shift that followed intense German interest in Ukraine. This week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, in a now-famous cell phone conversation, declared her strong contempt for the European Union and its weakness and counseled the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine to proceed quickly and without the Europeans to piece together a specific opposition coalition before the Russians saw what was happening and took action.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
New Geopolitics of the Coming Global Asymmetric War / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
New and Old
Even the definition of “asymmetric war” is controversial, because it can concern at least three drivers and methods of conflict, usually between large organized fighting forces and the opposite. Firstly there is the political-economic or other motivation, second the tactics, and thirdly the weapons utilised in asymmetric war - which itself is usually defined by the negative. Some writers say the term was first used by Andrew J. Mack in a 1975 book titled “Why Big Nations Lose Small Wars”. Some military historians conversely say asymmetric war dates from Antiquity, and included the surprise outcome of larger fighting forces losing an asymmetric war with smaller insurgent, militia, terrorist or tight knit politically motivated forces and entities in specific theaters of conflict.
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Friday, January 24, 2014
Geopolitics And World Power / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Air power, Sea power, Land power
In a Dec 4, 2013 editorial, Bloomberg reported US military analysts saying that China's action to control the airspace around several small uninhabited islands and subsea rocks it claims “are only a prelude to more action”. They say China wants to enable wide-area cover for warships to operate along what China calls the First Island Chain. These lie across one of the two direct channels between China’s coast and the blue-water Pacific. Recent air-zone declarations by President Xi Jinping’s government show its determination to firstly obtain air supremacy, then move on to exerting maritime power, with a blue-water navy capable of operating across all deep oceans.
Sunday, January 05, 2014
More Wars in 2014? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: Where are the world’s most dangerous places in 2014?
*Mostly forgotten, but the highly dangerous, Indian-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir. Rebellion against Indian rule by Kashmir’s majority Muslims is again boiling. Over 1.6 million Indian and Pakistani troops, backed by nuclear weapons, are in confrontation. Skirmishing along Kashmir’s Line of Control is frequent. The nuclear strike forces of both India and Pakistan are on a perilous hair-trigger alert, with about three minutes warning of an enemy attack.
Thursday, January 02, 2014
The Geopolitics of the Gregorian Calendar / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
When England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, some 170 years after it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, Benjamin Franklin wrote, "It is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on Sept. 2, and not have to get up until Sept. 14." Indeed, nearly two weeks evaporated into thin air in England when it transitioned from the Julian calendar, which had left the country 11 days behind much of Europe. Such calendrical acrobatics are not unusual. The year 46 B.C., a year before Julius Caesar implemented his namesake system, lasted 445 days and later became known as the "final year of confusion."
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Russia and Europe Battle for Ukraine / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Ukraine matters. It’s strategically located. It’s in Europe’s geographic center. It borders seven countries.
In alphabetical order, they include Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Russia. After Western/Central Russia, it’s Europe’s largest country territorially.
It’s resource rich. Zbigniew Brzezinski once said “without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Kurdistan At the Edge of Empires / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Reva Bhalla writes: At the edge of empires lies Kurdistan, the land of the Kurds. The jagged landscape has long been the scene of imperial aggression. For centuries, Turks, Persians, Arabs, Russians and Europeans looked to the mountains to buffer their territorial prizes farther afield, depriving the local mountain dwellers a say in whose throne they would ultimately bow to.
The hot temperament of this borderland was evident in an exchange of letters between Ottoman Sultan Selim I and Safavid Shah Ismail I shortly before the rival Turkic and Persian empires came to blows at the 1514 Battle of Chaldiran in northern Kurdistan. The Ottoman sultan, brimming with confidence that his artillery-equipped janissaries would hold the technological advantage on the battlefield, elegantly denigrated his Persian foes:
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Saturday, October 05, 2013
Humanitarian Wars, We Love You As We Kill You / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: MISES
Daniel McAdams writes: In February, 2011, Soliman Bouchuiguir told a lie. It was a big one. As the head of the Libyan League for Human Rights, Bouchuiguir initiated a petition that was eventually signed by 70 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) demanding that the US, EU, and UN “mobilize the United Nations and the international community and take immediate action to halt the mass atrocities now being perpetrated by the Libyan government against its own people.”
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
U.S. and Iranian Realities / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Anonymous
U.S. President Barack Obama called Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last week in the first such conversation in the 34 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The phone call followed tweets and public statements on both sides indicating a willingness to talk. Though far from an accommodation between the two countries, there are reasons to take this opening seriously -- not only because it is occurring at such a high level, but also because there is now a geopolitical logic to these moves. Many things could go wrong, and given that this is the Middle East, the odds of failure are high. But Iran is weak and the United States is avoiding conflict, and there are worse bases for a deal.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Did Putin Quietly Play the Debt Card Over Syria? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Ron_Holland
"They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy. They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar. If [in America] there is a systemic malfunction, this will affect everyone. Countries like Russia and China hold a significant part of their reserves in American securities. There should be other reserve currencies." – Vladimir Putin in 2011
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Syria Chess Or Checkers – Putin And Obama On Collision Course / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
OBAMA HOUNDED BY HIS OWN PRESS
Since September 10, things have gone downhill fast for Barack Obama. Called everything from doing a Laurel and Hardy show with slapstick partner John Kerry, to repeating Jimmy Carter's lame duck presidency, Obama has been pasted by the US press. Another cruel gibe at Obama was that he and France's President Hollande are playing checkers – while Putin plays chess - to win.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Syria, America and Putin's Bluff / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
In recent weeks I've written about U.S. President Barack Obama's bluff on Syria and the tightrope he is now walking on military intervention. There is another bluff going on that has to be understood, this one from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin is bluffing that Russia has emerged as a major world power. In reality, Russia is merely a regional power, but mainly because its periphery is in shambles. He has tried to project a strength that that he doesn't have, and he has done it well. For him, Syria poses a problem because the United States is about to call his bluff, and he is not holding strong cards. To understand his game we need to start with the recent G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Moody’s Downgrades Hong Kong Over Snowden / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Patrick_Henningsen
Yesterday the world made some sense, but then you wake up today and realise how far-reaching the international white collar mafia truly is…
International financial ratings agency Moody’s is not known for being a political enforcement arm of Washington DC… until now that is.
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
The Paradox of Imperialism / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: MISES
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
writes: The State
Conventionally, the state is defined as an agency with two unique characteristics. First, it is a compulsory territorial monopolist of ultimate decision-making (jurisdiction). That is, it is the ultimate arbiter in every case of conflict, including conflicts involving itself. Second, the state is a territorial monopolist of taxation. That is, it is an agency that unilaterally fixes the price citizens must pay for its provision of law and order.
Predictably, if one can only appeal to the state for justice, justice will be perverted in favor of the state. Instead of resolving conflict, a monopolist of ultimate decision-making will provoke conflict in order to settle it to his own advantage. Worse, while the quality of justice will fall under monopolistic auspices, its price will rise. Motivated like everyone else by self-interest but equipped with the power to tax, the state agents' goal is always the same: to maximize income and minimize productive effort.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Global Balance of Power Anarchy and Hegemony / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Robert D. Kaplan writes: Everyone loves equality: equality of races, of ethnic groups, of sexual orientations, and so on. The problem is, however, that in geopolitics equality usually does not work very well. For centuries Europe had a rough equality between major states that is often referred to as the balance-of-power system. And that led to frequent wars. East Asia, by contrast, from the 14th to the early 19th centuries, had its relations ordered by a tribute system in which China was roughly dominant. The result, according to political scientist David C. Kang of the University of Southern California, was a generally more peaceful climate in Asia than in Europe.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Be Careful: Russia is Back to Stay in the Middle East / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
Russia is back. President Vladimir Putin wants the world to acknowledge that Russia remains a global power. He is making his stand in Syria.
The Soviet Union acquired the Tardus Naval Port in Syria in 1971 without any real purpose for it. With their ships welcomed in Algeria, Cuba or Vietnam, Tardus was too insignificant to be developed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lacked the funds to spend on the base and no reason to invest in it.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
China Tests Japanese and U.S. Patience / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned Beijing that Tokyo is losing patience with China's assertive maritime behavior in the East and South China seas, suggesting China consider the economic and military consequences of its actions. His warning followed similar statements from Washington that its patience with China is wearing thin, in this case over continued Chinese cyberespionage and the likelihood that Beijing is developing and testing cybersabotage and cyberwarfare capabilities. Together, the warnings are meant to signal to China that the thus-far relatively passive response to China's military actions may be nearing an end.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
How Turkey Could Shift the Global Balance of Power / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Money_Morning
Jeff Uscher writes: Is Turkey about to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)?
After years of delay on its application to join the European Union (EU) as a full member, Turkey has made overtures to the SCO as an alternative to the EU.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2013
America Stepping Back as Global Policeman, Avoiding the Wars That Never End / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the United States would transfer the primary responsibility for combat operations in Afghanistan to the Afghan military in the coming months, a major step toward the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Also last week, France began an intervention in Mali designed to block jihadists from taking control of the country and creating a base of operations in France's former African colonies.Read full article... Read full article...