The three most powerful nations are in the early stages of transitioning the world into a new geopolitical arrangement.
President Trump clearly wants to go down in history as the initiator of this new order. It will destroy the outdated, antiquated, gasping remnants of the 1945 world order.
Please notice that this is a revolutionary, progressive movement. Normally we think of Democrats and liberals as progressive; in this matter, they are the reactionaries, the czars, the mandarins of the past.
Trump believes that America is being bled dry by international demands from the 1945 way of things. The only way to stave off bankruptcy and decline and still pay for things like health care is to rearrange the world.
We will indeed “get”, in at least an influence sense, Panama and Greenland, and North and South America in general. We may retain the last vestiges of Europe, of England and France and maybe Germany, after they finally buckle under the demands of military buildups combined with maintaining their munificent social welfare spending.
Or maybe the second great new power, Russia, will get Europe.
They’ll certainly get Moldavia, the Baltic States, and the Ukraine. But they’ll likely get the rest of Eastern Europe, too, at least as strong allies. Maybe Germany.
And, of course, China is the third leg of the new world order. The United States and Russia still do not fully trust the Chinese, but they may come around. The Chinese, for their part, still harbor fantasies of a totally Chinese-dominated globe.
Not likely. As soon as reality sets in, and they get hegemony over Taiwan and Asia and maybe even India and New Zealand/Australia, they’ll settle into the new swing of things. And be happy for it.
Trump has already floated the idea of an American Israeli-style “Iron Dome” total coverage anti-missile system for the U.S. I expect the next “float” will be a proposal to sell versions of it to Russia and China so that they do not freak out. Or to invite them to share the development and costs of such a system.
A U.S., Russia, China iron dome would create great stabilty for these three dominant powers and their citizens, as they would then be able to (mostly) stave off attacks from terrorists, terror states, and rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran.
Or from whoever. For there will always be rogue states wanting “in”.
This will all be to the approval of most of the citizens of the world. Notice Trump’s re-election. Notice the rise of populist (they really aren’t right wing) parties all over Europe.
Most people, most places, in most times, have preferred stability. They don’t like social change, the kind where you don’t know what pronoun to use, and where you are required to attend college campus/North Korean-style re-education training sessions. They like to know their place in the order of things.
I’m American. I’m Russian. I’m Chinese. These are solid things that people can get their arms and their minds around.
And this is why liberals are impotently dancing and singing and swearing.
They thought they were the progressive ones. When, sadly, they are the conservative ones, the reactionary ones.
I’m not endorsing any of the above. I’m just trying to read the situation.
And what I see are a bunch of people trying vainly to hold onto the past. And another bunch lurching forward toward something new and filled with potholes. They’d better all get a grip on reality.
Fast.
