Why is the United States always meddling in the back yards of other major powers? Doesn’t anyone on Washington’s Think Tank Row ever wonder if the US may be destabilizing the world? An email notification I got this morning from Foreign Policy Magazine set me to thinking.

Why is the United States always meddling in the back yards of other major powers? Doesn’t anyone on Washington’s Think Tank Row ever wonder if the US may be destabilizing the world? An email notification I got this morning from Foreign Policy Magazine set me to thinking.

3:01 AM Athens, Greece time. Gmail notified me that I have a mail from Andrew Sollinger, who’s the publisher of the magazine. It’s about an upcoming Virtual Dialogue aptly titled “Great Power Plays In the South Caucasus.” The mail reads, in part:

“The South Caucasus region is a critical battleground for great-power players in Eurasia—and one where the United States has been losing ground. Russia, China, and (increasingly) Turkey have been pursuing strategic interests across the region.”

The announcement goes on, but essentially puts forth the question of what the United States’ and Europe’s strategy in Georgia should be. My immediate thought, and perhaps yours was; “How about leaving Georgia alone?” But, Foreign Policy thinking would have to stop, if the United States ever did that. Then it hit me, perhaps because I was notified by Google. Just how far is this region from America, anyhow? As it turns out, quite a ways.

According to Google Earth, Washington D.C. is 5,778.61 miles (9,299.77 km) from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. That is, if you travel by spacecraft or airplane over the North Pole. On the other hand, you can walk to Moscow through the beautiful Caucasus Mountains, 59.74 miles (96.14 km), and be in Russia. You can even put on your hiking boots and head to Moscow itself, it’s only 1,022.48 miles (1,645.52 km) to Russia’s Kremlin, where geostrategy is strangely about the local neighborhood. I wonder if the “thinkers” slated for this coming policy talk ever use Google Earth?

All of the “thinkers” involved have exactly the same nonsensical view that Russia is somehow being aggressive, rather than defensive, in this whole border militarization scare over Ukraine. And all this comes on the heels of John Herbst and the likes of him jumping up and down, screaming the latest propaganda nonsense about “Invasion, Invasion, Invasion.” If you read Herbst, you’ll find a lot of lunacy there. The man thinks Russia will be broken soon, and that in 20 or 30 years, the biggest country on Earth won’t even be significant.

Then there’s Mamuka Bakhtadze who was the CEO of Georgian Railway LLC, the state-owned railway company of Georgia before rising to the exalted position as Washington puppet in Tbilisi. It’s also worth mentioning that he resigned as PM after only one year in office because the people of Georgia got fed up with him and launched massive protests. I am not sure if his joint press conference with NATO’s commander had anything to do with this.

You don’t need Foreign Policy Magazine emails to find out that America intends to stir every pot in the borderlands around Russia and China, and any other perceived competitor on the world stage. End of story.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

read more:

https://journal-neo.org/2021/12/28/how-about-leaving-the-south-caucasus-alone/

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BY James O’Neill

Russia has recently set out its list of demands for a resetting of the position of the United States in Europe. The Americans have reacted cautiously, promising to give the Russians an answer “shortly”. It would be unwise to hold one’s breath awaiting a positive response from the Americans. Even in the highly unlikely event they respond positively to the Russian proposals, there must always remain the fundamental question: Can they be trusted?

There is a single characteristic that marks United States foreign policy conduct since the end of the Second World War and it is that any agreement they enter into lasts only as long as they consider desirable or in their interests to do so. The classic illustration of that point, and one that no doubt featured heavily in Putin’s assessment of the situation and the making of Russia’s demands, has been a steady movement Eastward of the NATO alliance.

It needs to be remembered that at the time of the reunification of Germany, Soviet acquiescence of the deal was bought with a promise by the Americans that NATO would not expand “one inch” to the East. It took very little time for that promise to be broken. NATO’s Eastward expansion to Russia’s borders has been the dominant political military phenomena of the intervening 30 years.

There is no doubt that Putin is deadly serious about Russia’s desire to see an end to this relentless expansion. The expansion has been made with one objective uppermost in mind, and that has been the United States desire to “confront” Russia. The purpose of this confrontation is blindingly obvious. It is to provoke Russia into doing something that will lead to an immediate expansion of the level of sanctions imposed upon it. Further sanctions are clearly the objective and the Americans and their allies will stop at nothing to provoke a Russian reaction that can be used as a justification of the long-desired increase in sanctions.

For reasons that I will come to, an increase in sanctions are unlucky to trouble the Russians very much. A more immediate problem for them will be the appropriate reaction to NATO’s expansion to include Ukraine. There is little doubt that such an expansion is part of the American plan. It has been ever since the United States inspired coup in 2014 that over- threw the legitimate Ukrainian government and replaced it with what can only be described as a Neo Nazi horror show.

On an economic level, the coup has been disastrous. The Ukrainian economy has been receding ever since, with a steady loss of population equalling the economic downturn. There is no reasonable prospect of the Ukrainian economy improving in the foreseeable future. The decline in the economy has been matched by a political decline. The current leader Volodymyr Zelensky has been engaged in a war of attrition with his political rivals.

The Kiev government has also refused to implement the terms of the Minsk accord that they signed in 2015. That agreement was designed to end the political deadlock caused by the effect of removal of the two Donbass republics from Ukraine following the United States inspired coup. Not only has Ukraine failed to meet its obligations under the Minsk accord, it has in effect waged war on the two breakaway regions, killing thousands of people, including women and children.

Part of the major reason for Ukrainian recalcitrance has been the tacit support of Germany and France who have consistently failed to insist that Ukraine comply with the terms of the Minsk accord. Since the recent German election, the attitude of the Germans has deteriorated in respect of Russia. The new German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock is a blatantly pro United States Green. She has spent her brief time in office thus far in going out of her way to present an anti-Russia line. Given the variety of problems currently facing Germany including a grave shortage of energy to keep their population warm in the coming winter, her attitude is, frankly, remarkably stupid.

The new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has made some recent comments designed to ease the tension, but he really needs to give his foreign minister a sharp reminder of the nature of geopolitical reality. German industry takes a more realistic line and is dismayed at the deterioration in German – Russian relations since the election. It will be interesting to see how much longer Baerbock can survive in the face of the twin pressures from a dismayed business elite and a population growing colder by the day.

Putin has remained remarkably quiet about the obvious stalling by the European Union over approving the pipeline. He could usefully point out that the pipeline was a major project of now retired German Chancellor Angela Merkel who resisted enormous United States pressure to cancel the project. It is extremely disappointing to see the German government apparently capitulating to the Americans and go cold over approving the pipeline coming into action. That has apparently been the case since September.

One reason for Putin not making a major fuss over the German apparent capitulation to United States pressure is that he has alternative markets for the energy. That market is to the east, where China is willing to take as much of the Russian supplies as they are able to provide. Russia has recently announced that massive supplies of natural gas will be provided through a new pipeline laid through Mongolia, which will enhance substantially Mongolia’s royalties.

The availability of the giant Chinese market greatly reduces the economic pressure upon Putin, as indeed it would in the event of further western sanctions. The political support of China is also a major factor in Putin’s response to any further United States pressure on Ukraine.

There is little doubt that at least some members of the United States establishment would like to integrate Ukraine into NATO. That this has not yet happened is due to two major reasons. The first is that, as already noted, Ukraine is an economic basket case and will provide no useful economic benefit for the European Union, and will probably be an enormous drain on the European Union.

The second reason is that despite United States bluster about further sanctions on Russia should Russia choose to intervene directly in Ukraine, the reality is that United States sanctions have a limited effect, and that effect gets less by the day as Russia developed a range of non-western defence mechanisms, including an alternative to SWIFT developed with China, and its growing trade with nations to the East who are less enthralled to the United States line than the Europeans.

United States behaviour is highly unlikely to change, with their weapons sales to Ukraine being but one example of their reluctance to engage in real reform in the region. It may be that Putin’s best policy with Ukraine is to simply wait. The country is facing enormous social and economic problems. It may only be a matter of time before the population rises up against the present grossly incompetent and illegitimate government. Putin’s best policy may simply be therefore, one of patience.

James O’Neill, an Australian-based former Barrister at Law, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

READ MORE:

https://journal-neo.org/2021/12/29/putin-s-best-policy-is-to-simply-wait/

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According to former NATO Ambassador Kai Eide, the alliance must defuse the tensions by refraining from unnecessarily harsh language and reassuring Russia, which has its legitimate interests.

As relations between NATO and Russia have arguably reached a new low amid reciprocal buildups and the alliance's perennial expansion that Moscow seeks to halt, former NATO Ambassador and top Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide has reprimanded the bloc's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

According to Eide, the situation between NATO and Russia is dangerous and must be handled with care. The retired diplomat emphasised that while the language has been unnecessarily harsh from both sides, Moscow has a "traditional fear" of being surrounded by NATO. Therefore, the rhetoric must be toned down, he argued.

"We must reassure the Russians. Jens must change course and use the time he has left in NATO to calm the conflict. Words create suspicion, they mean something. Both sides have legitimate interests, and then we must find solutions that reflect both sides", Eide told TV2.

Eide believes the situation has become the most dangerous since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He feels that NATO must take into account that Russia also has legitimate interests, in the same way that NATO and Ukraine have.

"There is no clear solution, it must be found, discussed, and it becomes difficult because both parties have gone too far. Now you have to sit down and negotiate solutions for all parties", Eide told TV2.

READ MORE:

https://sputniknews.com/20211230/norwegian-diplomat-slams-nato-boss-stoltenberg-urges-him-to-ease-russia-tensions-1091902153.html

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American democracy has always been uneven. A nation founded on dispossession and enslavement, still grappling with the living legacies of those terrible injustices, cannot honestly call itself a true democracy. It was not until the 1960s that the United States took genuine steps towards inclusive democracy, with the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. Half a century later, those hard-won victories now face the biggest threats of their relatively short existence.

As the US commemorates the first anniversary of the failed coup attempt of January 6, 2021, the focus is overwhelmingly on how to stop those threats from being realised.

The signs aren’t exactly heartening. Right-wing media continues to promote the “big lie” about the 2020 election, very deliberately laying the groundwork for the next one, voting rights reform is wobbling, and the almost daily revelations from the January 6 congressional investigation are having very little impact.

Meanwhile, the big reforms that need to happen to strengthen American democracy – from the Supreme Court, to voting rights, to media control – are either stalling or not on the agenda.

The undoing of the United States’ democratic legacy, and the loss of even its imperfect democracy, would be catastrophic for the United States – and for the rest of the world, too. As much as the focus should be on what failure might mean for Americans themselves, the implications are far, far wider.

If, as historians, political scientists and even some members of Congress are warning, January 6 and Donald Trump’s campaign to subvert the election was a test run for the November 2022 mid-terms or the 2024 presidential elections – what does that mean for the rest of us?

READ MORE:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/what-s-the-plan-australia-needs-to-prepare-for-the-collapse-of-american-democracy-20220103-p59llh.html

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