Russian vassalization of Ukraine

[Saz]

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[Dylan]

You assert that the world is more complex after the Cold War.

You provide examples of such complexity on a post-Cold War basis.

I point out such examples existed during the Cold War, thus neutering that part of your argument.

Yeah, I feel fine. You?

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[The Comrade]

"yes of course your criticism of my argument is true, but that makes my argument even MORE sound!"

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http://www.fpa.org/features/index.cfm?a ... _sidebar=0

America’s foreign policy is the expression of its goals in the world and of how it proposes to achieve them, a reflection of the nation’s interests and a guideline of how to interact with other countries. Global interdependence and the breakdown of traditional barriers has increased the complexity of foreign policymaking. The distinction between foreign and domestic issues is no longer pronounced, and as the global financial crisis of 2008 proved, local decisions have ripple effects abroad. Understanding how foreign policy is made and conducted in the U.S. is crucial to participating in this democratic project.

[Dylan]

I agree with your brand new position that economic interdependence and globalization have made foreign policy a more delicate balancing act.

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http://www.mepc.org/articles-commentary ... mplexities

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
May 1, 2014 | Victoria, British Columbia

We live in an age of discontinuities. Internationally, at least, the past and present no longer serve as reliable guides to the future. Our expectations are regularly shown to be unrealistic. It’s clear that we misperceive the present as often as we comprehend it. So we are constantly surprised by trends and events.

We did not anticipate the major factors that shaped the world after the Cold War ended. We were stunned by the implosion of the Soviet Union and blindsided by the rapid return of China to wealth and power. Triumphalism born of the Soviet collapse led many to hope that history had culminated in the global victory of liberal democracy and the vindication of Western values. But American efforts to implant these values in places like Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iraq fostered anarchy instead.

History may have taken a vacation but it’s back with renewed vigor, at least in Eastern Europe and East Asia. Europe and the United States are again in a tug of war with Russia over both its frontiers and the political orientation of its neighbors. China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam now posture belligerently over the ownership of islets, rocks, and reefs in the empty seas between them. Borders fixed in the eras of colonialism and the Cold War are no longer immutable.

The world is in the process of devolving into blocs, coalitions, and regional orders that respond to the agendas of their members rather than those of the United States, other outside powers, or the international community at large. You can see this trend almost everywhere. Consider, for example, the disintegration of greater Syria, the dismemberment of Ukraine, the chaos in the Sahel and central Africa, and the renewed antagonism between Japan and Korea as well as Japan and China. No one knows how these fragments of the decaying world order of the past will evolve, still less how they will fit together. Meanwhile, shifting coalitions of the willing are replacing the rigid alliance structures of the Cold War. Alliances now facilitate cooperation; they no longer oblige it. Hence the insatiable demand by allies of the United States for strategic reassurance.

This devolution adds to the unpredictability of world events, including economic as well as political and military events. The uncertainty is all the greater because the disintegration of global authority coincides with the emergence of the Indo-Pacific at the center of the globalized world economy. For the first time in two centuries, the heirs of the Euro-American Enlightenment are no longer in a position to control or set the pace of global political-economy.

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You guys are pretty weak today

The Bro Coalition.