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I think people miss the point about sovreignity. Part of what got Microsoft into this position in the first place is that they built and sold software. Now, t
by dijit 5mo ago
I think people miss the point about sovreignity.
Part of what got Microsoft into this position in the first place is that they built and sold software.
Now, they don't build and sell software, they sell services. Services means you're buying access to data.
The data is the problem.
There's a certain amount of soft power you have when you can disallow access to data and services for foreign officials[0] arbitrarily.
The old world order would of course permit us to sanction new sales of things, but in the new world: this is crucially tied with current access to services.
I think the easiest way to think about it is:
Would you depend on another nation selling you the parts to build a power plant, or would you prefer to depend on them supplying you the power- in fact it's worse than that because not only are you buying power you're also giving up a lot of information on who uses it, how it's used, and enough control to cut it off for an individual person.. totally crazy.
the EU itself was designed around the idea that if you are crucially tied in this way then war becomes unthinkable. But that only works when you're equivalently sized entities. The US uses this position to bully the world.
- leonidasrup 5mo agoEU is for example quite comfortable to be dependent on energy imports. The biggest share of imports to EU by value is "mineral fuels, oils, distillation products". It's 17% of all imports. https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/imports-by-category https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/imports-by-categ...
- dijit 5mo ago1) that gave Russia a lot of leverage over us, so, lessons should be learned. 2) Tech dominance is almost at 100% for large companies and governments across europe. Much higher than 17%
- leonidasrup 5mo agoEven after 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, Europe didn't learn it lessons. After 2022 the leverage just shifted to other countries. 17% is the share of money spent on imports by category. The actual energy imports dependency rate is much higher. "The energy imports dependency rate in the EU was 57%, which means that nearly 60% of the EU’s energy needs were met by net imports. However, the dependency rate varied across EU countries. The highest levels were found in Malta (98%), Luxembourg (91%) and Cyprus (88%), while the lowest dependency was in Estonia (5%), Sweden (27%) and Latvia (29%)." https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/wdn-20260318-1 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/w...
- dijit 5mo agoYou're reading it backwards. The EU is a lot less energy dependent than it was in 2020, precisely because of the situation they are in now. Just because it's painful and time consuming to fix, doesn't mean that it's not worth being fixed, nor does it mean that it's not happening.
- leonidasrup 5mo agoBetween 2021 - 2025, petroleum oils didn't change much. Lot of natural gas imports in gaseous state has been just replaced with LNG. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_imports_of_energy_products_-_latest_developments https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... There was slight decrease in total natural gas consumption, back to level from about 1995. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Natural_gas_supply_statistics https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
- Spooky23 5mo agoThose integrations are needed in the long term because only through interdependence can you have peace. You need peace because the consequence of war post WW2 are too high. The problem with the right wing authoritarian types, regardless of regime is that their thirst for power is harmful to all stakeholders. The tragedy of the Iraq War wasn’t Iraq — it was kicking off decades of inevitably escalating conflict. And doing so for nothing. We, as in citizens of the world, need strong trade ties with China, Europe, the United States and the developing world. I don’t want my sons getting killed by some PRC drone, nor do I want them killing people in service of the dreams of fat old men. Europe butchered two generations a century ago. Their model makes sense, and can integrate with the world.