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> we have noticed power dynamics which weren't well guarded against in the old way The clearest example is a dependency on a single wealthy nation for militar
by dmix 9mo ago
> we have noticed power dynamics which weren't well guarded against in the old way
The clearest example is a dependency on a single wealthy nation for military and world policing. It's a good thing for individual countries to be able to project their own foreign policy goals like containing Russia without having to rely on the whims of another country's politics. Even here in Canada we should be able to defend their own arctic border reliably and be able to project power to China/India beyond strongly worded letters.
> I'd be hoping for more international lawyers and trade agreements.
Ignoring the US's recent moves there does seem to be more trade deals than ever between 'middle powers'.
> isolationism is a death sentence
The best way to maintain global relationships is to offer tons of value. Similar to how China can get good trade deals and influence simply because they have so much to offer economically. This isn't just issues of diplomacy.
- littlestymaar 9mo ago> like containing Russia without having to rely on the whims of another country's politics That's true, but at the same time it was probably already the case before invasion of Ukraine, and it is definitely the case now. The main issue is political fragmentation: would Paris and Berlin risk lives of French and German people (soldiers and civilians due to retaliation) to save Vilnius? But if the answer is true (as obligated by the Treaty of Maastricht, independently of NATO) then Russia stands no chance with conventional weapons against the whole Western Europe, the balance of military, demographic and industrial power is ridiculously lopsided (involving nuclear weapons would also raise the same political question about the French willingness to nuke Russia in retaliation to Russia nuking Poland but if the answer is yes, Russia cannot win a nuclear war either (which everyone would lose)).
- tokai 9mo ago>would Paris and Berlin risk lives of French and German people (soldiers and civilians due to retaliation) to save Vilnius? Yes very much.
- generic92034 9mo agoAbsolutely: https://www.bundeswehr.de/en/news/eastern-flank-new-brigade-5929244 https://www.bundeswehr.de/en/news/eastern-flank-new-brigade-...
- hilbert42 9mo agoRight. Aggression can only be tolerated up to a point before it triggers a response. Remember, on 1 September 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland and two days later both the UK and France declared war on Germany.
- littlestymaar 9mo ago“and two days later both the UK and France decided not to intervene and just set up defensive position in Belgium and eastern France” is what actually happened. With the terrible results we known for France (the defensive position being hammered on its weakest point, leading to the complete collapse of the French army in less than a month.
- littlestymaar 9mo agoI wouldn't be so categorical about France. Pro-russian/ “anti-war” political parties earned the majority of votes (but not seats) in the last elections, and the personality of Macron is so divisive (he has had record low approval for most of his tenure) it really impairs support for war.
- HPsquared 9mo agoThe answer is always going to be "maybe", but hopefully enough of a maybe to deter hostile actions. That puts everything in an uncomfortable state of uncertainty.
- bornfreddy 9mo agoBetter uncomfortable state of uncertainty than comfortable state of war. Nuclear or conventional.
- hilbert42 9mo ago"…comfortable state of war." No war is "comfortable", it's a distaster for all involved participants—even the victors.
- dvfjsdhgfv 9mo ago> The main issue is political fragmentation: would Paris and Berlin risk lives of French and German people (soldiers and civilians due to retaliation) to save Vilnius? This is a wrong question. If one day Russia feels brave enough to attack any NATO country, the right question to ask is, "Do we want to fight this war on someone else's soil or on ours?". This is the reason why Europe is so focused on helping Ukraine BTW.
- vasac 9mo ago> Do we want to fight this war on someone else's soil or on ours? Russia thought so too.
- dvfjsdhgfv 9mo agoWhat do you mean? There was never any question of attacking Russia and fighting any war on their soil. Nobody in their right mind would attack a country with the 2nd largest army and nuclear weapons. The war in Ukraine definitely made this army still very weak, but, except Ukraine defending itself, I don't see anyone rushing to attack Russia anytime soon. It makes no sense now and made no sense before they invaded Ukraine. There is nothing to win by attacking Russia and a lot to lose.
- pqtyw 9mo ago> with the 2nd largest army By what metric?
- dvfjsdhgfv 9mo agoGlobal Firepower maintains a database and is a popular reference: https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=russia https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-de... But I saw several people criticizing their relatively high position on this chart given high incompetence and losses. EDIT: Apparently this website doesn't follow any rigorous methodology. So basically the only thing their army is 2nd in the world is the nominal number of nukes (hopefully most of them don't work).
- nixpulvis 9mo agoWell said. One of the USA's greatest exports is intelligence and higher education, and what has been happening with that and the general anti-intellectual atmosphere is to me the most concerning as an american. Ironically, public education in america has been pretty bad for a while. But I'm going to start rambling here... way too many problems, and no damn leadership.
- gottorf 9mo ago[flagged]
- gchamonlive 9mo agoCould you elaborate on what constitutes far-left political activism?
- junofan 9mo agoI don’t know if this counts as activism, but I was at my university’s Faculty Club and a faculty member walked over and immediately started bitching about Donald Trump without introducing themselves. Like, you’re supposed to be in the business of developing people. What a gigantic waste of time and money.
- UqWBcuFx6NV4r 9mo ago> I don’t know if this counts as activism … then you proceed to describe something that in no world would be considered activism.
- jonnybgood 9mo agoIf they were instead lauding Trump would you also see that as a waste of time and money? If they aren’t doing this in the classroom I don’t see the issue.
- tzs 9mo agoWhat about that counts as far left activism? Nearly every Republican who was in Congress in 2014 would have described at least 3/4 of what Trump has done this term as illegal and totally unacceptable, and would have described at least half of the rest as incompetent. Unless you can make a case that since 2014 the country has moved so far to the right that even 2014 Republicans are now "far left", about the only thing you can infer from someone bitching about Trump is that they are probably not far right. (Even that one is pretty iffy because he's pissed off a lot of the far right now too).
- FpUser 9mo ago>"like containing Russia" I think at the moment Canada faces way bigger problems from the south.
- locknitpicker 9mo ago> I think at the moment Canada faces way bigger problems from the south. Exactly. Not only there's the absurd campaign from the Trump administration on how Canada should be a state but there are also the recent treasonous talks between representatives from the Trump administration and the Alberta separatists. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/eby-alberta-separatism-9.7066320 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/eby-alberta-separatism-9.70... Putin's regime might be a cancer of humanity, but Canadians have far more reasons to feel threatened by the Trump admin than from Putin, even if Trump is a proxy for Putin.
- FpUser 9mo ago>"Putin's regime might be a cancer of humanity" It will go away at some point unless global west will start behaving in the same manner.