We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
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Putin suggests EUniks make it official Putin really laid into the EU and reporters about his handling of Chechnya. He’s certainly got a clear idea of what it is he is fighting.
I’d say Russian and American interests are being driven ever closer together at the same time both are diverging from the EU. This is definitely one of the developing features of the geopolitical landscape to watch closely.
It could well be the defining global political feature of the 21st Century.
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Best quote from his speech:
“If you decided to abandon your faith and become an atheist, you also are to be liquidated according to their concept. You are in danger if you decide to become a Muslim. It is not going to save you anyway because they believe traditional Islam is hostile to their goals.”
This is the key to winning this war; we must convince the greater Islamic world that these people are our common enemies.
Let’s not forget that Chechnya only became a hotbed of Islamic extremism when Jelzin started the war on them. The Russians make for uncomfortable bed-fellows at this point.
I think you’re right Dale but it’s funny, as I read yesterday or the day before somewhere (possibly Guardian, possibly Independent) some leftist columnist expressing hope that the Russians would make an alliance with Europe to oppose America. Talk about misreading where Russian interests lay.
Ralf: I am not so sure that Chechnya would have not been prey for Islamists had there been no war in Yeltsin’s time. The whole of Central Asia is being undermined by well-financed Wahhabist movements and I think Chechnya would have been a target too. What happened wrt Dagestan gives a window on this I think. Since you are in Germany, there was an excellent Arte series on this on television this past summer.
Thus while I think the Russian prosecution of the war was and is very problematic, I do not believe that the problems in central Asia are ultimately Russia’s fault. I think they have a correct awareness of the larger strategic threat in the region and feel that they have their back against the wall. I think the West – well, America, since I don’t believe that the EU is capable of giving useful strategic advice – can advise the Russians and hopefully influence their activity for the better but I do not believe that the Russians have any other choice ultimately but to fight.
Despite the fun of a good knock on the EUrocrats, my intent here is quite coldly analytical. I do not have a crystal ball to tell me whether the confluence of interests will be for better or for worse, although I do see some interesting fallout in areas I do know a great deal about: commercial space.
This convergence of the interests of “Great States” is also neither immediately positive nor negative to libertarians. All too often those who see the world through ideology tinted glasses (of whatever colour) fail to grasp reality. They see only the instant, not the dynamic.
Let’s face it. We are not a global force to be reckoned with. If we wish for our meta-context of “live and let live” to spread and prosper we must also be the hardest of hard core realists.
Thus, in this great convergence I see the glass as at the very least half full and very possibly a tad more.