Had the Trump admin destroyed USAID and pervertedRadio Free Europe before you wrote the summary paragraph from A vs D below? Do you think your hopes expressed below are realistic now?
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“At the same time, we also got important things right during the Cold War that should be replicated. By creating the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1961, President Kennedy expanded international economic assistance to compete with Soviet aid. We need more of that now to compete with China. We also created the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and later Radio Free Asia. We need these tools of soft power. The Chinese and Russians are investing in them, and we should too. During the Cold War, the U.S. also established new tools to promote democracy, including the National Endowment for Democracy. To compete effectively with authoritarian China and Russia, we need more innovative instruments for promoting our values, not fewer.”
A very interesting article, goes well with my morning coffee here in the desert of southern Arizona. I remember being introduced to George Kennan's "Long Telegram" as a sophmore in high school in 1970. (I was attending a public school in Mountain View California.) It seems to me that from that time on, 1946, the United States had a pretty stable foreign policy when dealing with the former USSR, regardless of the political party in the White House. So, my question about this "Second or new Cold War" with China, will our government ever have a concert policy or will it swing in the wind depending upon who is in the White House? Just the rambling thoughts of an old hermit. Hope I haven't upset anyone.
Thank you for your insight and decades of study. Recap here is necessary and useful for the “youngsters” 😉 who weren’t around to experience the lessons — it’s not necessarily amnesia … it’s that without a back story, easily followed as it is in this summary, they feel it’s overwhelming and too complicated to follow — therefore not interested unless it’s a sound bite and Tiktok-able .
9 months ago I would have agreed that we were returning to great power competition, but increasingly I believe that is an old term that does not apply today. We need to start thinking in terms of criminal gangs competing.
If indeed China will be our number one nemesis, we must remember the following when dealing with them.
They have put a lot of resources into creating a set of powerful AI models that are VERY widely being deployed country-wide for: Education, Law Enforcement, Health Care, their court systems, military?, etc. Since there is central planning there, they feel this is one way to get an advantage all across the board on the west. Probably true!
Spoiled children, raised in one-child homes, need to be made to understand that creating fiendish weapons will spur others to develop these as well. The new arms race now unfolding is a lose-lose proposition!
When approached recently by RUSSIA and the US into negotiating mutual inspection-based limitation on these types of weapons … the way it was done in the Cold War . . . THEY EMPHATICALLY SAID NO!!
Einstein was right when he said that “Technology changes EVERYTHING, except the MIND of man”! He must have meant our animalistic aggression, greed, lust for power, etc.
Heaven help us all.
Spoiled children, raised in one-child homes, need to be made to understand that there will be consequences for miscalculated aggressive actions. Especially if they have an Achilles heel. Namely the Three Gorges Dam. Even with non-nuclear weapons, it can be definitely compromised.
Spoiled children, raised in one-child homes, need to be made to understand that, as far as hypersonic-speed weapons, the re-action time to any use forces opponents to make quicker decisions. In the 1950s / 1960s cold war, a 35 minute widow existed before massive retaliation. There were a few instances that THIS IS WHAT SAVED HUMANITY! Now, with the hypersonic technology that China stole from Russia, this window is now reduced to a mere few minutes. Armageddon and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is closer than we think.
As rasPutin is finding out, the world will no longer tolerate reckless aggression based on obsolete World War Two (2) type Win / Lose thinking.
Other than Western propaganda, why do you assume Russia is any more of an authoritarian regime than the one in USA? Is it because CIA and Israel have a better propaganda campaign to make USA look like a democracy.
In the last 15 years, almost as if it were an anthropological study, I’ve analysed the White upper echelon psyche, and I am appalled. Entitled brats, lacking empathy and coveting power and control. Perhaps, you should cease analysing others at take a good look at yourselves. It is horrific having to interact with your ilk, I’m surprised any of you can stand each other, no wonder you prefer dogs to your own ilk. This is what happens when you evolve in a Tundra, sociopathy and narcissism seems the dominant genetics.
Excellent summary of how we got here and why there is hope.
#3:
Had the Trump admin destroyed USAID and pervertedRadio Free Europe before you wrote the summary paragraph from A vs D below? Do you think your hopes expressed below are realistic now?
------------
“At the same time, we also got important things right during the Cold War that should be replicated. By creating the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1961, President Kennedy expanded international economic assistance to compete with Soviet aid. We need more of that now to compete with China. We also created the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and later Radio Free Asia. We need these tools of soft power. The Chinese and Russians are investing in them, and we should too. During the Cold War, the U.S. also established new tools to promote democracy, including the National Endowment for Democracy. To compete effectively with authoritarian China and Russia, we need more innovative instruments for promoting our values, not fewer.”
Can't wait to read the book. (Actually, I hope to listen to it on Audible.)
A very interesting article, goes well with my morning coffee here in the desert of southern Arizona. I remember being introduced to George Kennan's "Long Telegram" as a sophmore in high school in 1970. (I was attending a public school in Mountain View California.) It seems to me that from that time on, 1946, the United States had a pretty stable foreign policy when dealing with the former USSR, regardless of the political party in the White House. So, my question about this "Second or new Cold War" with China, will our government ever have a concert policy or will it swing in the wind depending upon who is in the White House? Just the rambling thoughts of an old hermit. Hope I haven't upset anyone.
Thank you for your insight and decades of study. Recap here is necessary and useful for the “youngsters” 😉 who weren’t around to experience the lessons — it’s not necessarily amnesia … it’s that without a back story, easily followed as it is in this summary, they feel it’s overwhelming and too complicated to follow — therefore not interested unless it’s a sound bite and Tiktok-able .
9 months ago I would have agreed that we were returning to great power competition, but increasingly I believe that is an old term that does not apply today. We need to start thinking in terms of criminal gangs competing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thiagodearagao/p/five-ways-a-single-european-stock?r=2di31u&utm_medium=ios
Power struggles rarely visit the margin—yet that’s where we feel the rupture. How do small cultural actors operate under these tectonics?
If indeed China will be our number one nemesis, we must remember the following when dealing with them.
They have put a lot of resources into creating a set of powerful AI models that are VERY widely being deployed country-wide for: Education, Law Enforcement, Health Care, their court systems, military?, etc. Since there is central planning there, they feel this is one way to get an advantage all across the board on the west. Probably true!
Spoiled children, raised in one-child homes, need to be made to understand that creating fiendish weapons will spur others to develop these as well. The new arms race now unfolding is a lose-lose proposition!
When approached recently by RUSSIA and the US into negotiating mutual inspection-based limitation on these types of weapons … the way it was done in the Cold War . . . THEY EMPHATICALLY SAID NO!!
Einstein was right when he said that “Technology changes EVERYTHING, except the MIND of man”! He must have meant our animalistic aggression, greed, lust for power, etc.
Heaven help us all.
Spoiled children, raised in one-child homes, need to be made to understand that there will be consequences for miscalculated aggressive actions. Especially if they have an Achilles heel. Namely the Three Gorges Dam. Even with non-nuclear weapons, it can be definitely compromised.
Spoiled children, raised in one-child homes, need to be made to understand that, as far as hypersonic-speed weapons, the re-action time to any use forces opponents to make quicker decisions. In the 1950s / 1960s cold war, a 35 minute widow existed before massive retaliation. There were a few instances that THIS IS WHAT SAVED HUMANITY! Now, with the hypersonic technology that China stole from Russia, this window is now reduced to a mere few minutes. Armageddon and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is closer than we think.
As rasPutin is finding out, the world will no longer tolerate reckless aggression based on obsolete World War Two (2) type Win / Lose thinking.
Adding your book to my reading list. Many good points in your short summary, which of course was to be expected.
Ha Ha! Correction, ordered pre-pub kindle A VS D! today
Always, thanks for such insight! Ordered a pre-pub kindle copy of A&As today on Amazon.
Other than Western propaganda, why do you assume Russia is any more of an authoritarian regime than the one in USA? Is it because CIA and Israel have a better propaganda campaign to make USA look like a democracy.
In the last 15 years, almost as if it were an anthropological study, I’ve analysed the White upper echelon psyche, and I am appalled. Entitled brats, lacking empathy and coveting power and control. Perhaps, you should cease analysing others at take a good look at yourselves. It is horrific having to interact with your ilk, I’m surprised any of you can stand each other, no wonder you prefer dogs to your own ilk. This is what happens when you evolve in a Tundra, sociopathy and narcissism seems the dominant genetics.