Posted by seumasach on June 11, 2018
“A secret plan to break up the West would also have the United States looking for new allies to replace the discarded ones. The most obvious would be Russia”
The most obvious would be China. Trump wants the factories back home which means in practice Chinese inward investment: China would invest directly into the USA rather than sell directly. This makes sense of Trump’s tariffs which would otherwise just be destructive. It’s true that the USA has a tradition of developing industry behind tariff barriers but that requires investment. At the end of the 19th century that came largely from Britain: now it can only come from China. At the same time, if the peace process with North Korea is successful China will come out in good light facilitating the above process. Trump has turned the world upside down. Can he put it together again?
NYT
10th June, 2018
The alliance between the United States and Western Europe has accomplished great things. It won two world wars in the first half of the 20th century. Then it expanded to include its former enemies and went on to win the Cold War, help spread democracy and build the highest living standards the world has ever known. President Trump is trying to destroy that alliance.
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Posted in Global peace process | Tagged: Chinese soft power, End of empire, retreat from empire, trump agenda, us-china partnership, US-China: clash of world systems | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 6, 2018
Mahbubani states the obvious: “The era of Western domination is coming to an end.” Western elites, he adds, “should lift their sights from their domestic civil wars and focus on the larger global challenges. Instead, they are, in various ways, accelerating their irrelevance and disintegration.”
Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
6th June, 2018
Ahead of the crucial Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Qingdao this coming weekend, three other recent events have offered clues on how the new world order is coming about.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Astana economic forum, BRICS(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), China’s CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, Chinese soft power, End of empire, Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Kishore Mahbubani, St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 28, 2018
Telegraph
18th May, 2018
Electromagnetic radiation from power lines, wi-fi, phone masts and broadcast transmitters poses a ‘credible’ threat to wildlife, a new report suggests, as environmentalists warned the 5G roll out could cause greater harm.
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Posted in Colony Collapse Disorder, Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: disappearing bees and pollinators, EKLIPSE | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 27, 2018
As US-led globalization degenerates into a cacophony of, hopefully, idle threats and the generalized incoherence that flows from internal division, the 22nd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) shows that globalization itself is not dead. As a multipolar project led by China we can hope to see a constructive globalization process subject to new forms of global governance. The key issue of the moment is the joining of this process by Europe and the related question of the replacement of the dollar as the standard means of international payment. Consciously or unconsciously, Trump has played the role of facilitator of this process which is now unfolding at breathtaking speed leaving so many lagging behind, most especially the Western intelligentsia which has never really got beyond liberal imperialism and has certainly never caught on to the idea of a multipolar world, to the idea of the equality of nations.
Xinhua
26th May, 2018
The 22nd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) concluded a plenary session Friday as world leaders gathered here to discuss pressing economic challenges.
Held under the theme “Building a Trust Economy” this year, the forum, often referred to as Russia’s Davos, attracted some 15,000 participants from 70 countries to Russia’s “northern capital” and second largest city.
The leaders noted that there are alarming trends that might compromise economic growth, including rising protectionism and unilateralism, the spiral of sanctions and risks from radical technology transformation.
Recognizing the need for a concerted effort in response, they called on countries to enhance mutual trust, remove trade barriers and boost bilateral and multilateral cooperation to drive forward global growth.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: The 22nd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIE | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 27, 2018
Frank Sellers
The Duran
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Beijing this week gives us some important details about what is moving the cogs of her foreign diplomatic and trade relations agenda. Merkel has several reasons, both politically and economically to make this journey.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, Multipolar world | Tagged: china-germany economic cooperation, Chinese soft power, Germany-Russia-China alliance | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 27, 2018
The noisy American retreat from the post-war international system which it itself dominated has opened multiple opportunities for the creation of a new international order and the resolution of geopolitical problems frozen in time. Here we are seeing the possibility of finally getting a Russia-Japan peace treaty for the second world war. Along with the emergence of an independent Europe. the sinking into irrelevance of NATO, the convergence of Germany and Russia /China and the definitive end of the cold war the ground is being laid for the unification of Eurasia, the world island as Mackinder put it. In other words, the end of the Anglo-American maritime empire as they themselves defined it.
Frank Sellers
The Duran
27th May, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, met in Moscow today to discuss a trio of topics, namely economic cooperation, the North Korea peace agreements that might be in the works, which both parties support, and the Southern Kuril islands issue.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: End of empire, Kuril islands, retreat from empire, Russia- Japan peace treaty, russia-japan relations | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 6, 2018
Federico Pieraccini
Strategic Culture
5th April, 2018
Diplomatic work continues in some of the areas with the highest geopolitical tensions in the world. In recent days there have been high-level meetings and contacts between Turkey, Iran and Russia over the situation in Syria; meetings between Modi and Xi Jinping to ease tensions between India and China; and finally, the historic meeting between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un. The common component in all these meetings is the absence of the United States, which may explain the excellent progress that has been seen.
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Posted by seumasach on May 3, 2018
“And then there are those 35,000 kilometers of highways and rail lines India wants to build over the next five years. Some India analysts are apparently wondering how to finance all that at an estimated cost equivalent to 3.4 percent of GDP.
That should be easy because the cost is just a little more than what China takes as a one-year trade surplus with India. So, China can recycle that money back to India to build modern infrastructure that would set the foundation for India’s sustainable, faster and balanced growth.”
Recycling the trade deficit as inward investment is a brilliant idea, a win/win idea and one which can be applied equally to other countries which habitually run a large trade deficit with China, most notably, the USA and the UK.
CNBC
4th April, 2018
Trust is an economic variable sounded like an echo swirling around Wuhan’s East Lake in China as President Xi Jinping was hosting last Friday and Saturday Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an “informal,” “heart-to-heart” summit.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: asian integration, Asian Investment Development Bank, BRICS(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), Chinese soft power, india -china partnership, recycling trade deficits | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on April 22, 2018
Guardian
22nd April, 2018
“We have 1,000 companies operating in the UK today funded by Japanese capital,” he says. “It accelerated after Margaret Thatcher promoted the UK as the ‘gateway to Europe’ for Japanese firms. The total Japanese investment to the EU’s 28 countries is of course huge, but out of 28 countries the UK alone now absorbs about 40% of total Japanese investment destined for the EU.” This account of a relationship that strengthened year after year – in a period during which the UK was in the EU – raises a very obvious question. Will it continue to thrive after we have left? He replies decisively. “One thing I can say for certain, based on fact, is that the companies operating today in the UK are not expanding their investment in the UK today.”
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Posted by seumasach on April 17, 2018
In other words, “global Britain” depends entirely on the UK’s relationship with the EU. This is a timely reminder by China after signs that “global Britain” actually means a desperate attempt by the UK to revive Western imperialism under it’s own leadership.
Politico
13th April, 2018
China’s envoy to the EU warned that planned trade talks between London and Beijing face “great uncertainties” if Britain fails to reach a trade deal with the EU beforehand. In his first media interview since becoming ambassador to the EU six months ago, Zhang Ming told POLITICO that EU-U.K. talks must be finalized prior to any detailed negotiations with China. “If there is not a Brexit deal, there won’t be things to talk about after that,” he said, adding, “If the EU and the U.K. fail to reach agreement in the first place, the U.K.’s agreements with other parties may have to face great uncertainties.”
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Posted by seumasach on April 17, 2018
It’s almost as if Trump is following the Leninist dictum of showing the people in practice the outcome is certain policies. As well, as a giving demonstration of the military impotence of the West, it must be added that he has put May, in particular, in a very precarious situation: her political survival now hangs by the most threadbare of lies. Strange that she should have placed her destiny in the hands of the erratic Trump, given the attempts of British intelligence services and media magnates to overthrow him!
Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet
17th April, 2018
By firing missiles on Syria with its French and British allies, the strange President Donald Trump has managed to force the Western powers to accept the end of their unilateral domination of the world. The insignificant result of this demonstration of force drags NATO back to reality. Without having made use of its weapons, Russia now succeeds the Soviet Union in the balance of world power.
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Posted in Syria | Tagged: bipolar world | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 