A Deeply Fractured World

[ytz]

Bets on how long this holds up?

It would be the first time a National Security Strategy has been written without a classified version. Then again, who knows with this administration. I can't imagine anybody serious actually wants to be associated with this thing.

 

[ytz]

Along the same lines ....

Donald Trump makes shocking offer... wants to form a C5 group with India, China and... will the G7 cease to exist?

President Donald Trump has opposed removing Russia from the G-8. Russia was expelled from the G-8 in 2014 after the invasion of Ukraine's Crimea.

www.india.com

US weighs ‘Core 5’ that could align traditional adversaries, diverging from G7

The idea envisions a new five-nation bloc including the US, China, Russia, India and Japan, raising questions over Europe’s role and transatlantic ties

bdnews24.com

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2025/12/10/how-a-new-russia-china-us-network-could-work-00685342

Openly saying they won't interfere in China but pledging openly to support right wing governments in Europe is some insane shit.

I'd be more worried if these folks were competent.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Engage with a troublemaker like Iran, Good President. Engage with a troublemaker like Russia ("after my election I have more flexibility"), Good President. Engage with a troublemaker like China, Good President (or in our case, Prime Minister).

Suddenly that's all changed. It is difficult to find a coherent foundation; obviously it can't merely be driven by domestic US political partisanship.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Openly saying they won't interfere in China but pledging openly to support right wing governments in Europe is some insane shit.

I'd be more worried if these folks were competent.

Harper expelling Putin from the G8 must really rankle Trump.
Canadians really have done a lot of different things to piss Trump off over the last 10-15yrs, lol, name another country that have done so?

 

[RangerRay]

I'm thinking of the people who insist Russia be blockaded/embargoed/sanctioned because it covets others' lands, occupies others' lands, has a terrible human rights record, and seeks to destabilize other countries and pilfer their knowledge, but do not insist China be held to the same standard (covets Taiwan and who knows what else, continues occupying Tibet, has a terrible human rights record, and seeks to destabilize other countries and pilfer their knowledge).

Not a problem for me. I would like both to be regarded as pariah states and treated as such.

 

[ytz]

I'm thinking of the people who insist Russia be blockaded/embargoed/sanctioned because it covets others' lands, occupies others' lands, has a terrible human rights record, and seeks to destabilize other countries and pilfer their knowledge, but do not insist China be held to the same standard (covets Taiwan and who knows what else, continues occupying Tibet, has a terrible human rights record, and seeks to destabilize other countries and pilfer their knowledge).

The moralists should adopt one standard for both. The realists should be as prepared to accept the situation on the ground in Ukraine as they are in Asia.

I guess the Trump administration is consistent.....being conciliatory to both going forward.

 

[ytz]

The Russians are openly praising the Trump NSS. That should tell you everything.

Why Russia Loves the New US National Security Strategy

Nothing about the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy should shock European leaders, still less the enthusiastic welcome that this confirmation of a revolution in US foreign policy has received from Moscow. It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that...

www.bloomberg.com

 

[Altair]

The Russians are openly praising the Trump NSS. That should tell you everything.

Why Russia Loves the New US National Security Strategy

Nothing about the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy should shock European leaders, still less the enthusiastic welcome that this confirmation of a revolution in US foreign policy has received from Moscow. It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that...

www.bloomberg.com

With so much US policy being written and developed in Moscow, I can see why.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I guess the Trump administration is consistent.....being conciliatory to both going forward.

Cast your minds back into the misty dawn of time, when there was a war called the Cold War...

 

[Kirkhill]

Cast your minds back into the misty dawn of time, when there was a war called the Cold War...

German chap, Kissinger.

A tortured and deadly legacy: Kissinger and realpolitik in US foreign policy

Henry Kissinger’s influence on US foreign policy was profound. His transactional approach – avowedly values free – included support of murderous and genocidal foreign leaders.

theconversation.com

Although it feels more like the Sorcerer's Apprentice version.

 

[Brad Sallows]

German chap, Kissinger.

Although it feels more like the Sorcerer's Apprentice version.

Hard to do political realism well when there are no practically-grounded realists and just a hockey sock of ideologues on both sides.

 

[Kirkhill]

Hard to do political realism well when there are no practically-grounded realists and just a hockey sock of ideologues on both sides.

Are they ideologues?
I sense no ideals or idealists among the leaders of any of the tribes.

Idealists are annoying but I can admire their dedication to their principles even when they are both arseholes and wrong.

I generally prefer pragmatists but I prefer my pragmatists to be grounded and able to recognize the pluses and minuses of their compromises for what they are.

This current mob doesn't feel to me as if they have any core, any centre.

Fame, power and money seem to be the main drivers. And may the devil take the hindmost.