Posted by Reinhard Bütikofer At the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue June 5, 2023 China’s Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue Notable Euro Greens reactions First, by Reinhard Bütikofer Reinhard Bütikofer is a German MEP for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, part of the Confederal Group of the European United […]
The speech by Russia’s president, it can be said, was not a surprise. Russia’s war against Ukraine was not, by any account, progressing the way the Russians expected and a shift in tactics was expected. What wasn’t expected was the mobilization of 300,000 reserves and a new wave of nuclear weapons threats
Russia continues months of nuclear threatening language, newly announced nuclear weapons, “Sarmat-2” deployments, as its “special operation” war in Ukraine grinds on… Today, Finland announces an intent to join NATO and Russia’s deputy chair of the defense committee responds
Ukraine reveals an expanded Great Game, a 21st century geostrategy, a GreatGameX. GreatGameX encompasses a greater Eurasian continent. GreatGameX geopolitics confront post WWII U.S. hegemony and recall a 19th/20th century struggle for control of Central and South Asia
Time to talk or time to move beyond negotiation and diplomacy? This week delivered another ratchet up of tensions along the Russian-Ukrainian border — and beyond. Germany foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, a leader of the Green Party in a newly installed coalition government, meets with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov
August in its imperial definition faces another day of reckoning – August 15th, 2021. The president of Afghanistan flees and the Taliban enter Kabul. Negotiations over a reported “unconditional surrender” proceed. U.S. helicopters swoop in to evacuate …
Fifteen years ago, we said the US Afghanistan war was a profound disaster, a choice to invade that would end in failure as so many invasions in the past have ended. Today, some twenty years from the war’s inception, the US president declared the withdrawal of US troops
‘Scoop’ / News now being received … an extension of the New START treaty is imminent. If so, this would be a smart move toward a nuclear weapons control architecture. Hopefully, the New START step forward comes to pass and sets the stage for agreements to follow …
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and US took a half century facing off and ramping up nuclear weapons. Doomsday war games threatened life on the planet. Dr. Strangelove-types planned to ‘bring it on’. Today, proliferators are back with a vengeance. Time to meet ‘MET’
(Update – Signing of agreement on Feb. 29, 2020 – Additional details to follow) The news of on again, off again talks and meetings between Afghan Taliban forces and the US seems to signal the latest truce will be followed by an agreement for US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The war operation began with […]
The ‘long-awaited’ U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace was revealed today… by all accounts, Palestinian representatives had no part in the announced plan. It showed. The White House ceremony was presented as spectacle without the respective participants needed for peace
An op-ed in the N.Y. Times informs us the U.S. needs more nukes. As if the collapse of nuclear arms agreements isn’t enough, someone says step on the pedal, speed up the nuke production line, proliferate, escalate, ratchet up, unleash a new arms race. Who is this op-ed writer?
As the INF and nuclear weapons control architecture collapses, we see no discussion in the US presidential TV debates re: the new nuclear arms race, a next generation of smart, ‘usable’, nuclear weapons, revelations of Saudi-Trump nuclear development, and talk of ending the nuclear test ban treaty
Work in Progress / Tracking @StratDem — When a crisis threatens to escalate into disaster, the Strategic Demands team attempts to take a deeper look, a view with perspective. Here we reveal snapshots of our research as the US threatens a new war, another war…
Today, political news, global headlines, Twitter words of the US president: “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it…”
Story of the Day from Strategic Demands’ associate, GreenPolicy360: With the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the Trump EPA has made it “painfully clear that they are incapable of rising to the challenge and tackling this crisis. They have shown a callous disregard for EPA’s mission, a pattern of climate science denial…”
Pepe Escobar’s geoeconomic political points connect. Whether called China’s Eurasia strategy, or the New Silk Road, or the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), it’s a new global great game with a new multipolar supply chain. The U.S. move this week to ban Huawei raises the game’s stakes and escalates tensions internationally