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  1. #1
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    World Orders: The Global Kaleidoscope in Repeated Motion

    The author is Chas. Freeman, formerly US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. I have just clipped the ending piece- it is much longer.

    Chas W. Freeman, Jr - Wikipedia.


    The disorderly birth of another, yet unnamed world order (2022 -?)

    The immediate U.S. war aims in Ukraine are to preserve Kyiv’s freedom to remain aligned with the U.S. and EU, if not now to join NATO. The longer-term U.S. strategic objective is avowedly “to isolate and weaken Russia.”

    U.S. policies toward China parallel these objectives. Washington seeks to keep Taiwan in its sphere of influence and to isolate and weaken China in order to retain its regional and global economic and technological as well as politico-military supremacy. It should surprise no one that Beijing and Moscow have come to perceive a common interest in thwarting and countering U.S. policies aimed at subordinating them and retarding their growth in wealth and power.

    U.S. policies of confrontation with Russia and China have unenthusiastic support from most NATO countries and Japan. But rising and resurgent powers, like Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey, oppose the effort to perpetuate the U.S. “unilateral moment” that they represent. With the notable exceptions of Australia, Britain, Japan, and south Korea, other major countries clearly prefer a multipolar, polycentric world order to one dominated by the United States or any other single power.

    So far, the protectionist trade and technology policies the Trump administration launched against China in 2018 and the current economic and financial war on Russia are having pernicious results. China has accelerated its scientific, technological, and military advance. Far from collapsing, the Russian economy now has the second largest balance of payments surplus after China’s. Meanwhile, Europeans face recession, energy shortages, and other hardships. Both China and Russia are finding new markets for their goods and services. The war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending, and the probability of war in the Taiwan Strait is rising dramatically.
    The shape of things to come

    The world order that appears to be emerging is one in which:


    • Sanctions-induced commodity and food shortages, breaking supply chains, and rearmament fuel persistent inflation.
    • The fiscal burden of rising interest payments forces a turn to domestic pay-as-you-go policies and a choice between “guns and butter” that the U.S. has long evaded.
    • The bloc formed by the United States, EU, Australia, Britain, and Japan to ostracize Russia and China is itself marginalized by the rest of the world, including its fastest growing economies and markets. Countries outside the US-led bloc refuse to choose between it and its designated adversaries, remain open for business with both, and reject the West’s imposition of end-use and retransfer restrictions on its exported products.
    • The ability to mount planetwide responses to issues like climate change and pandemics is impaired. Every region is on its own and, in terms of its impact, the sum of the parts is less than the whole.
    • The principal strength of the United States – its military prowess – proves irrelevant to most of the challenges in the emerging world order, which require economic responses that Washington cannot muster.
    • Russia permanently abandons its three-century-long effort to integrate with Europe to seek an Asian identity through intensified relations with China and India.
    • Turkey does the same, redefining itself as a West Asian and Islamic country rather than a European one and further attenuating its commitments to other members of NATO.
    • Smaller countries resist affiliation with either the West or its designated adversaries.
    • China’s “Belt and Road” initiative gradually extends Chinese economic influence throughout the Eurasian landmass and beyond in Southeast Asia and East Africa. Chinese political influence in the areas covered by the BRI gradually displaces that of the United States.
    • NATO and other multinational alliances become less cohesive, with members gradually reducing or withdrawing their commitments to them.
    • Germany, Japan, and other post-World War II dependencies of the United States rearm and develop more independent foreign policies.
    • Latin America develops relations with China, India, Iran, Russia, Turkey, and other countries that increasingly undercut American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.
    • Africa is where most of the world’s industrial labor force comes to reside, and its economies become more connected to Brazil, China, India, Russia, and Turkey than to the EU or United States.
    • Technology standards differ from region to region, and new technologies are often unavailable in regions beyond those that originated them.
    • The internet evolves into regional and national zones, separated from each other by firewalls.
    • Inexpensive Russian energy, metals, minerals, and other natural resources nourish economies in the so-called “global South” but are no longer reliably available at favorable prices to the U.S. and members of its anti-Russian coalition.
    • U.S. sanctions give China and Russia a compelling incentive to form consortia with Iran and others to eliminate dependence on the United States for civilian, military, and dual-use products like passenger aircraft.
    • The ability of the United States to finance its government and global power projection by issuing Treasury bonds is in increasing doubt, given the reputational damage of its confiscation of Iran’s, Venezuela’s, Russia’s, and Afghanistan’s dollar reserves.
    • The rising risk from U.S. unilateral dollar-based sanctions causes ever more countries to price exports and imports in their own currencies, use swaps to pair their currency with those of their main trading partners, switch to hard currencies other than the dollar, institute point-of-sale digital cross-border currency exchanges, and create new units of account for transnational trade settlement. The “exorbitant privilege” that has underwritten U.S. global primacy unwinds.
    • China, India, Russia, Arab oil producers, and other rising economic and financial powers respond to the incentives to build a separate financial world order that provides alternatives to the dollar-based SWIFT system and can destroy the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy. They do so.
    • Deglobalization generates multiple regional trade and investment regimes and divides global markets, from some of which specific great powers, like China, the EU, India, Russia, or the United States are excluded.
    • Disputes over international transactions are handled bilaterally or by region-specific processes rather than by global dispute resolution mechanisms like those of the WTO.
    • The world continues to rely on UN specialized agencies to address technical problems, but the UN Security Council and other international policy organizations, paralyzed by great power rivalries and disagreements, have diminished diplomatic utility.
    • There are few, if any, new global – as opposed to regional — rule-setting treaties and arrangements. The worldwide regulatory regimes of the post-Cold War era atrophy.
    • U.S. military supremacy erodes as regional forces strengthen themselves and new weapons systems and capabilities emerge in China, India, Japan, Korea, and Russia.
    • Given the escalation risks of the US-NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine, the increasing likelihood of a Sino-American war over Taiwan, north Korea’s reliance on a nuclear deterrent for regime survival, the India-Pakistan nuclear standoff, and the incentive to acquire nuclear weapons that Israel’s nuclear arsenal provides to other countries in its region, the danger of nuclear war is now significantly greater than at any moment of the Cold War.


    Conclusion

    There is great dissatisfaction internationally with the now decaying “Pax Americana” of the late 20th century and a desire to see it replaced by a multipolar world order or orders in which different countries play leading roles in different sectors of world affairs.

    Current trends suggest that the kaleidoscope is once again rearranging international actors and their relationships in new patterns in which economic, financial, political, cultural, and military prowess is distributed regionally and functionally rather than centralized. But there has been little consideration so far of the likely consequences of an international system that entails much more complex interactions among states and peoples than before. If nothing else, this is a timely reminder of the old saying: ‘be careful what you wish for. You may just get it.’

    To cope successfully with the challenges of a world with many competing centers, statecraft must take the long view, focusing on abiding interests rather than the passions of the moment. To manage a world in which rapid, unexpected change is the norm, diplomacy must be nimble rather than steadfast. And to be able to compete, countries must not only get their act together at home but employ all the instruments of statecraft – political, economic, financial, technological, and military – to shape the views and actions of their competitors to their advantage.

    World Orders: The Global Kaleidoscope in Repeated Motion – Chas W. Freeman, Jr.



  2. #2
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    The author is Chas. Freeman
    A horrible c u n t who once said the Tiananmen Square massacre was justified. Gosh, I wonder why you'd drool over him?

    "...the Politburo's response to the mob scene at 'Tian'anmen' stands as a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not as an example of rash action."

  3. #3
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    A'www diddums, did he tell you what you don't want to hear?

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    A'www diddums, did he tell you what you don't want to hear?
    I think no one reads your garbage diddum...diddum
    Last edited by HermantheGerman; 27-09-2022 at 02:45 AM.

  5. #5
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    Gawd you boneheads are stoopid- the author is Chas. Freeman, not me. Thank you for the magnificent compliment anyway, but entirely undeserved- I am neither an ex-Ambassador or a widely published author.

    Anyway, great work from the Mod team- it's own Thread! My own particular interest in this whole Ukraine debacle is it's global geopolitical/ geostrategic and economic implications- not war porn. So let this thread be focused on broader geopolitical considerations involving current events- and the messy Megathread can be left to focus more on kiddyporn.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Gawd you boneheads are stoopid- the author is Chas. Freeman, not me. Thank you for the magnificent compliment anyway, but entirely undeserved- I am neither an ex-Ambassador or a widely published author.

    Anyway, great work from the Mod team- it's own Thread! My own particular interest in this whole Ukraine debacle is it's global geopolitical/ geostrategic and economic implications- not war porn. So let this thread be focused on broader geopolitical considerations involving current events- and the messy Megathread can be left to focus more on kiddyporn.
    When a tyrannical dictator deceives the rest of the world and his own people, you favour the non interference principle.
    Surely such a principle simply encourages such tyranny to go even further. Diplomatic disapproval might work in the true democracies, where more honest leadership can be held to account by such admonitions.

    The west has finally woken up to oppose Putin, and there is clearly a route taken that he will regret.

  7. #7
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    Managed Competition: A U.S. Grand Strategy for a Multipolar World

    Following is a 'long read' from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft- I have just copied the Executive summary. It must be pretty obvious to anyone except a dufus that the aggressive 'neocon' approach to US foreign policy has only been a horrendous failure this century- this article proposes an alternative approach, factoring in the changes in the World and international order over the previous 25 years.



    Executive Summary

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has accelerated pre-existing momentum toward a multipolar global order. In response, the Biden administration effectively rallied NATO and ensured that Russian forces cannot resubjugate Ukraine. But it has not anchored its tactical moves in a broader strategy to safeguard America’s most critical interests. As a result, we are fast headed toward a two-front geopolitical faceoff in which a belligerent Russia and a rising China are cooperating closely with each other against the United States.

    A dangerous gap has emerged between Washington’s global ambitions and its ability to achieve them.

    In a world in which power is shifting from the West toward the East and Global South, the United States is enmeshed in a proxy war with the world’s largest nuclear power, and Americans face mounting political and social challenges at home, a dangerous gap has emerged between Washington’s global ambitions and its ability to achieve them. The United States had a large margin for strategic error during its era of post-Cold War global primacy, when it faced no significant great power challengers. It has no such cushion today. America needs to rethink its grand strategy.

    This should involve the following elements:

    • Recognize that attempts to isolate and weaken Russia and China are likely to fail. The combination of Russia’s vast natural resources and China’s economic heft and centrality to global commerce present a challenge far different from what we faced during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union posed a military and ideological threat but was economically feeble.

    • Avoid promoting regime change or otherwise undermining political and economic stability in Russia and China, which could have serious blowback effects in the United States. The United States’ economic health is to a great degree dependent on that of China. Information technology has made us vulnerable to external subversion at a time when American society is dangerously divided and mistrustful of key institutions.

    • Instead, pursue a strategy of managed competition, in which our rivals are not only counterbalanced by American power and alliances, but also are constrained by agreed rules of the game that are tailored to an era in which advances in precision weaponry, cyber technology, and artificial intelligence pose significant new threats to stability.

    • Be more selective about where the United States should focus its involvement. As a seapower dependent on trade and robust international partnerships, the United States must remain engaged with the world. But Washington can no longer afford to squander its resources on quixotic democratization crusades or on policing regions that are not central to America’s own well-being. Greater burden sharing by allies and partners is essential.

    • Aim to gain a breathing spell abroad so that we can focus on healing our domestic wounds and advancing prosperity at home. This also means that the United States should avoid framing its global challenges in terms of an existential battle between democracy and authoritarianism.


    FULL- Managed Competition: A U.S. Grand Strategy for a Multipolar World - Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Why would some murkily funded "institute" be so pro-Putin and Chinkystan and so against the US and NATO, when one of its stated philisophies is supposedly “respect[ing]…international laws and norms"?

    Answers on a Postcard to:

    Sabang
    How Much Money Comes from Russia Dept.
    The "Where does he find this nonsensical shit" Institute
    The next post may be brought to you by my little bitch Spamdreth

  9. #9
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    'arry, would you be a good boy and pollute the kiddies threads instead- this stuff is way above your head. Good boy.


    I will also copy the Introduction- seems relevant and concise enough-


    Introduction

    Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has greatly narrowed Russia’s strategic playing field by alienating the West and cementing Russian dependence on China and the Global South. But it has also dealt a staggering blow to the Biden administration’s nascent grand strategy.

    When Biden entered office he identified the rise of China as the United States’ chief geopolitical challenge. His team said that their goal was to stabilize the U.S.-Russian relationship and to end our “endless wars” in order to facilitate a strategic focus on Beijing.1 He simultaneously sought to rally the world’s democracies against the challenge of authoritarianism, strengthen what he called the rules-based international order, and promote global cooperation on critical transnational problems such as climate change and contagious disease.2 This approach would, in turn, enhance global stability and prosperity for the American people, thereby constituting a “foreign policy for the middle class.”3

    Great power competition has escalated into open conflict, the risk of nuclear confrontation has increased, and the space for international cooperation on climate and contagion has narrowed to a sliver.

    Russia’s attack on Ukraine exposed the significant gaps and contradictions of this strategy. Our pre-war insistence on deepening U.S. and NATO military cooperation with Ukraine — once described by CIA director Bill Burns as the “brightest of all red lines for the Russian elite” — while cheerleading for Putin’s domestic political opponents proved incompatible with the goal of stabilizing relations with Moscow.4 Vast swaths of the Global South have resisted Biden’s admonitions that they must side with the West in a Manichean face-off with Russia, China, and other authoritarians.5 While few support Putin’s invasion, many sympathize with Russian and Chinese accusations that rules-based order is merely code for Washington’s belief that it should determine when to enforce rules and when to exempt itself and its allies.6 Outside of Western Europe, much of the world has grown weary of America’s self-appointed role as moral arbiter of their domestic political progress. Contrary to Biden’s hopes, great power competition has escalated into open conflict, the risk of nuclear confrontation has increased, and the space for international cooperation on climate and contagion has narrowed to a sliver.

    The Biden team has adjusted course quite nimbly in forging a united Western response to Russia’s attack and ensuring that Putin cannot succeed in subjugating Ukraine. But there is danger that its tactical decisions in thwarting Russian ambitions will become a substitute for a broader grand strategy that more closely aligns American objectives with its core interests and capabilities. The United States enjoyed a large margin of strategic error during its era of hegemony, when it faced no peer or even near-peer competitors. Its failures proved damaging but far from fatal. That is unlikely to be true in a multipolar world in which direct warfare between nuclear powers has become a real possibility, digital technologies make the United States more vulnerable than ever to external sabotage and subversion, and the frightful realities of climate change have become increasingly apparent. To avoid failures that could truly threaten America’s security and well-being, we need a new strategic approach.


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    ^All this pre supposes that Putin’s war is acceptable, and no one country or organisation has the right to intercede!
    Considering the illegality of Putin’s war, and the impact of it on everything from social cohesion, to economic malaise at home and abroad, there seems to be only one driver who is culpable.

    The solution is obvious to most.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    The solution is obvious to most.
    Solution(s):

    He could withdraw from this illegal invasion
    -or-
    Someone could put a bullet through his diseased brain.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    'arry, would you be a good boy and pollute the kiddies threads instead- this stuff is way above your head. Good boy.


    I will also copy the Introduction- seems relevant and concise enough-
    Ah look, more bollocks.

  13. #13
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    More childish petulance. If you actually have anything to contribute to the substance of this thread 'arryboy, feel free to do so. Otherwise please keep your nonsense to the kiddy threads- there are plenty of them.

  14. #14
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    This steaming shit pile of a thread belongs in the doghouse.

  15. #15
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    I will leave this to the Mods. Who after all, started this Thread.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    This steaming shit pile of a thread belongs in the doghouse.
    Of course it does. But at least it gives sabang somewhere out of the way to post his incessant bollocks.

  17. #17
    last farang standing
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Gawd you boneheads are stoopid- the author is Chas. Freeman, not me. Thank you for the magnificent compliment anyway, but entirely undeserved- I am neither an ex-Ambassador or a widely published author.

    Anyway, great work from the Mod team- it's own Thread! My own particular interest in this whole Ukraine debacle is it's global geopolitical/ geostrategic and economic implications- not war porn. So let this thread be focused on broader geopolitical considerations involving current events- and the messy Megathread can be left to focus more on kiddyporn.
    It is not that you post people with a differing opinion. It is that you appear to trawl the net looking for someone that does and give it creedence without mentioning the negative side of repressive autocracies you support.
    I could write many posts about the the failings of america its support of some of the worst right wing regimes in an almost paranoic hatred of socialist and communist regimes. As the saying goes. "America will always do the right thing after exhausting all other possibilities." The saving grace of a democracy is its ability to get and do better via the people who elect them. The regimes you support do not have this ability with control over media and all forms of its citizens life.
    The fact that you dont see what is blindingly obvious to anyone with average intelligence is that the overwelming choice of people around the world are democracies. No one is fleeing countries that are riddled with poverty, war or bad governance to China or Russia, they are all fleeing to USA Uk Europe Australia Canada N.Z. etc. These countries are the overwelming choice of migrants from all over the world for a reason, yet you fail to see this glaringly obvious fact while supporting countries where mass migration is always outbound.
    No one is saying the west is perfect but just remind me where in Putin and Xi's paradise is your current abode or in fact most of the authors you quote? They are living in countries where their anti government comments can be expressed without a gaol sentence or a sudden disappearance following.
    You and ohoh both mix an ounce of truth with a pound of lies.

  18. #18
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    That hardly broaches the questions raised by the emergent multipolar world order Hugh, or the manifest failure of the 'Neocon' dominated US foreign policy establishment to deal with it in the current century, but I will just point out that Russia has the 4th highest immigrant population in the World- after USA, Germany & Saudi- and the Chinese government enjoys a +90% approval rating from it's own citizens. So you are right- there is indeed more than one perspective and opinion, and we (or anyone else) do not hold a monopoly over that.

  19. #19
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    ^^
    Well said Hugh. Green owed.

  20. #20
    last farang standing
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    That hardly broaches the questions raised by the emergent multipolar world order Hugh, or the manifest failure of the 'Neocon' dominated US foreign policy establishment to deal with it in the current century, but I will just point out that Russia has the 4th highest immigrant population in the World- after USA, Germany & Saudi- and the Chinese government enjoys a +90% approval rating from it's own citizens. So you are right- there is indeed more than one perspective and opinion, and we (or anyone else) do not hold a monopoly over that.
    You proved my point regarding an ounce of truth with a pound of lies.
    The approval rating of the chinese government by its citizens is about as accurate as the pending "referendum" in Donbask and Luhansk. There is a cost in expressing a view contrary to the prevailing one of the encumbent authorities, wether the authority is legitimate or not.

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    No less than Harvard University conducted a long term study, and found the approval rating of the Chinese government to be 92% Hughie. Are you calling them liars? Like I said, there are divergent opinions and neither we or anyone else holds a monopoly, or Veto.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    No less than Harvard University conducted a long term study, and found the approval rating of the Chinese government to be 92% Hughie. Are you calling them liars? Like I said, there are divergent opinions and neither we or anyone else holds a monopoly, or Veto.
    No less than armchair warrior Sabang, chose to highlight his misconceptions with a colorful childrens toy?

    Not content with losing your marbles, you now liken a disgraceful war to a childrens plaything.

    Shall we roll you in glitter and still classify you as a turd?

  23. #23
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    Totally incoherent, and you accuse me of losing my marbles. Whatever you are on, I urge you to seek counselling for it.

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    Can America Isolate Anyone?

    A major indicator of a changing, or rather changed, World:-



    September 27, 2022


    © Photo: REUTERS


    By Ted SNIDER
    The U.S. hoped it had the power and influence to move the world to isolate Russia. Outside of Europe, that hope has proven difficult to realize, as the U.S. has struggled to convince Quad allies like India and even NATO allies like Turkey to join its effort to isolate the Kremlin. Washington has similarly been unable to move the giant China.

    Even in Europe, American efforts to isolate Russia have proven hard to achieve. While Europe seemed to support the sanctions regime, Russian imports had almost crept back up to pre-war levels by April. That reversal is largely attributable to exports from countries, including European countries, who were signed up for sanctions.

    Russia has now overtaken Saudi Arabia as the second-largest supplier of crude oil to India, which now imports 819,000 barrels of Russian oil a day. Moscow has also overtaken the Saudis as China’s largest supplier of oil, sending the Chinese 1.98 million barrels a day.


    But it is not just a hunger for Russian oil thwarting Washington’s aims. Though China expressed “questions and concerns” in its “balanced” approach to the war in Ukraine, and India said that “today’s era is not war” and praised “diplomacy and dialogue,” both nations continued to stress their diplomatic ties to Russia.

    Indian Prime Minister Nerendra Modi said in comments after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit (SCO) that “Relations between Russia and India have significantly improved.” Modi said that the two nations are “friends, and for decades we have always stood shoulder to shoulder. The whole world is aware of the nature of Russian-Indian relations, and the world also knows the deep friendship, in particular the personal friendly ties that bind us.” Their relationship, he added, “will only improve and strengthen in the future.”

    Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a readout from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that “since the beginning of this year, China and Russia have maintained effective strategic communication.” Xi stressed that China and Russia “have maintained close coordination on the international stage to uphold basic norms of international relations,” and promised China would “work with Russia to fulfill their responsibilities as major countries and play a leading role in injecting stability into a world of change and disorder.” Importantly, Xi added that China “will work with Russia to extend strong mutual support on issues concerning each other’s core interests, and deepen practical cooperation in trade, agriculture, connectivity and other areas.” When it comes to multipolar international organizations like the SCO and BRICS, Xi said that the “two sides need to enhance coordination and cooperation.”

    Isolating Russia has proven difficult not only economically and diplomatically, but militarily. On August 29, for example, Russia announced that September’s Vostok 2022 military exercise will include forces from Russia, China, and India.

    And it is not only Russia where U.S. promises of isolation have faltered. Iran is also exposing the gap between U.S. promises and its capabilities. On September 15, the SCO signed a Memorandum of Obligations with Tehran that will soon make Iran a full member of an organization that represents 43 percent of the world’s population. Far from being isolated, SCO membership will grant Iran top-level contacts and economic cooperation with Russia, China, and India. At the recent summit, Iran was also joined by Turkey, who now has the status of “dialogue partner.” In September 2021, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar were also admitted to the SCO as dialogue partners, joining Bahrain and the Maldives.


    Iran is beginning to break out of regional isolation. In August, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait both announced that they will be returning their ambassadors to Tehran. Though Saudi Arabia has not yet gone that far, they have met with Iran several times and, on April 25, held their “fifth round of ‘positive’ talks in Baghdad…on normalising bilateral relations,” per Reuters. On August 22, the Iranian foreign ministry said that “talks with Saudi Arabia over resuming ties are also going in a positive direction.”

    In April 2021, Iran signed a 25-year strategic and economic partnership with China worth $400 billion. And in June of this year, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation accord that covers many areas, including oil, petrochemicals, defense, agriculture, tourism, direct flights and culture.

    Venezuela, another country the U.S. has attempted to isolate, is also showing signs of escape. On August 29, Columbia returned its ambassador to Venezuela as newly elected Columbian president Gustavo Petro fulfilled his election promise to fully restore diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

    Columbia’s opening to Venezuela is a significant defeat for the U.S. policy of isolating Venezuela. Colombia has long been the key to U.S. projection into Latin America and a base of operations against Venezuela. Biden wrote in an op-ed that he has “said many times that Colombia is the keystone of U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.” He has also called the relationship between the two nations “the essential partnership we need in this hemisphere,” and Colombia “the linchpin…to the whole hemisphere.”

    In addition to the embassy opening, Petro and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro plan to fully reopen the border between the two countries and restore military relations.
    Columbia’s re-establishment of relations with Venezuela follows Argentina’s April announcement that they will re-establish ties with Venezuela. Several other Latin American countries have reopened communications with Venezuela, including Mexico, Peru, Honduras, and Chile. Ecuador is also considering re-establishing diplomatic relations with Venezuela, while Argentine President Alberto Fernandez called on all Latin American countries to review their relations with Caracas.

    These openings to Venezuela come on the heels of both Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba and Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela being invited to the most recent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). They also follow the boycotts and show of support for Venezuela and Cuba after Biden excluded them from this year’s Summit of the Americas. Several nations, including Argentina, Chile, and Belize protested. Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, and others boycotted the summit.



    All three nations—Russia, Iran and Venezuela—demonstrate the difference between the claimed and actual capacity of the U.S. to lead the isolation of its opponents.

    Washington’s attempts to isolate countries that challenge its hegemony have, ironically, led to targeted nations turning to each other and forming a community of isolated nations. Indeed, U.S. attempts at isolation helped cement the very multipolar world Washington promised to prevent.

    theamericanconservative.com

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat

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    ^Your desperation is becoming more like OhOh with every nonsensical, in depth tissue of obvious lies.

    Russia, via Putin is now so deformed and trapped by its own propaganda, even someone like you begins to sound like a true, paid sycophant. That’s really sad.

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