Wednesday 11 November 2009

Are the US and EU Empires

Are the US and EU Empires?

Is the European Union the first post modern soft power empire, by soft power I mean cultural scientific people power exceeds military power.
The United States demonstrated the maxim that military force is greater when hidden by threat and coercion with out its actual use, in more diplomatic language by defense rather than offensive use. The use of military force in Iraq was very different to that used in Afghanistan not in weapons or tactics but by effect.
Europe was and still is willing to go to the ends of the earth to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and the conspirators behind 9/11, so long as Iraq is not invaded the uni-polar US lead empire continues.
Once Iraq 2 happen this all changed, at first it seemed to demonstrate the military weakness of as Rumsfeld put it politely "old Europe" or impolitely "Cheese eating surrender monkeys", he could make jokes he was not going into Iraq with an unarmored HMVee. Much to the Chargrin of the SDP Oscar Fischer Germany's foreign secitary America seem in full unilateral mode.
Thanks to fighting skill of the coalition troops the mission in Iraq must even now be considered a partiacial success even though the European British & American public know Afghanistans Mohamind Khazai by name, even though Afghanistan is very much unsolved as a problem, they don't know the head of the Iraqi government at all. Iraq is still in chaos.
Yet what has changed American military power is still unassaliable (unless the EU spent as much as the US on weapons and what good would that do?) yet something did change.
The fact that the insurgencey could even fight at all was a shock but the greater cost was in treasure and prestigee to the US they where not invincible, the cost is detailed in Joe Stiglitz book the 3 Trillion dollar war.
Even despite the inflation of the money supply the Fed and US Govt has still to manage the cost of the war, the US will be paying for it for decades to come.
The multi-polar world emerged out of the Iraq process, Russia and China forged burried their hatred & rivallry forging the military & economic alliance of the Shanghi co-operation organization which seeks to unite with india and the central asian stan republics to form the biggest territorial power block in history with most of the worlds peoples in it. Against this the EU Japan, the post modern powers must draw Russia towards Europe and in the multi-polar world the USA must choose between a three main options a North American tarrif block - the so called North American Union forming out of the NAFTA organization (Canada, US, Mexico) or free trade with China or Europe. (I shall be doing a series of vids on youtube called 7 Giants the seven great powers)
In the 1990's Kent Calders book, which I highly recommend, Asias deadly triangle argued that the greatest threat came from a technological alliance between rouge states such as Pakistan and North Korea. What a perseptive book, as Dr AQ Khan the Pakistan ISI's nuclear bomb maker sold secrets of nuclear designs to North Korea and maybe AlQueada.
Calder correctly placed the USA in the 1990's as a pacific orientated Naval Hyperpower, today in a multi-polar world Calders analysis of the US growing involvement in the old Soviet & Chinese sphere of influence in central asia particularly in Khazacstan the worlds 5th largest country have also been born out. The US today is the Global hyperpower but their are now two superpowers EU & China and a military superpower in Russia which will have to choose between east or west.
To find out more about Russia see my vid Europe and Russia on Infokemps Youtube channel.



From John McCormick's Book
The European Superpower
ISBN number 1-4039-9846-9 copywrite palgrave Macmillian

Europe
1 peace
2 multilateralism
3 internationalism
4 soft power
5 civillian
6 liberal world view
7 sustainable development
8 universal
9 post modern
10 welfarism
11 community
12 state reliance
13 social liberalism
14 progressive
15 secular
16 modest
17 pragmatic
18 settled
19 risk averse
20 past

vs

Americanism

1 War
2 Unilateral
3 Nationalism
4 Hard power
5 Military
6 Realist world view
7 consumerism
8 Provincial
9 Modern
10 Materialism
11 Individual
12 Self-reliance
13 Social conservativism
14 Orthodox
15 Religious
16 Ambitious
17 Utopian
18 Restless
19 Risk Tolerance
20 Future
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