In These New Times

This is a major foreign policy statement by Secretary of State, Tillerson. Note that there is no reference whatsoever to the UK, supposedly America’s closest ally. At its heart is a strategic partnership with China envisaged already in terms of long term strategic planning ( 50 years). In addition, detente with Russia and, specifically, cooperation against ISIS is back on the agenda. This is only logical: the US understands that the idea of creating a wedge between Russia and China, trending recently on alternative news sites, is devoid of realism. Of further significance is Tillerson’s clear disavowal of any attempt to impose US values universally placing US foreign policy unequivocally in the “realist” camp. It goes without saying that this program can only be applied subject to the overcoming of internal  opposition or, to put it bluntly, over the dead bodies of the neocon faction. The retreat from empire implies an adjustment to the power structure within the USA. This may already have happened to some extent with the shift of power away from the State Department to the Pentagon in fulfillment of the reversal of the policy outlined by Rumsfeld in 2001.

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5th May, 2017