Steinlight
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- Jan 30, 2014
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Wanted to post this before I forget. I think it is an important article, rarely do you see the unofficial state press such as the NY Times talk about the cracks in the American political system, and dare address the issue of the end of American hegemony. This from a neo-con heavyweight like David Brooks no less. Wanted to get all your thoughts on the article. I will give my comments later today, just wanted to put this out there.
David Brooks
April 28
All around, the fabric of peace and order is fraying. The leaders of Russia and Ukraine escalate their apocalyptic rhetoric. The Sunni-Shiite split worsens as Syria and Iraq slide into chaos. China pushes its weight around in the Pacific.
I help teach a grand strategy course at Yale, and I asked my colleagues to make sense of whats going on. Charles Hill, who was a legendary State Department officer before going to Yale, wrote back:
The category error of our experts is to tell us that our system is doing just fine and proceeding on its eternal course toward ever-greater progress and global goodness. This is whistling past the graveyard.
The lesson-category within grand strategic history is that when an established international system enters its phase of deterioration, many leaders nonetheless respond with insouciance, obliviousness, and self-congratulation. When the wolves of the world sense this, they, of course, will begin to make their moves to probe the ambiguities of the aging system and pick off choice pieces to devour at their leisure.
This is what Putin is doing; this is what China has been moving toward doing in the maritime waters of Asia; this is what in the largest sense the upheavals of the Middle East are all about: i.e., who and what politico-ideological force will emerge as hegemon over the region in the new order to come. The old order, once known as the American Century has been situated within the modern era, an era which appears to be stalling out after some 300-plus years. The replacement era will not be modern and will not be a nice one.
Read more here:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/opinion/when-wolves-attack.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=2
David Brooks
April 28
All around, the fabric of peace and order is fraying. The leaders of Russia and Ukraine escalate their apocalyptic rhetoric. The Sunni-Shiite split worsens as Syria and Iraq slide into chaos. China pushes its weight around in the Pacific.
I help teach a grand strategy course at Yale, and I asked my colleagues to make sense of whats going on. Charles Hill, who was a legendary State Department officer before going to Yale, wrote back:
The category error of our experts is to tell us that our system is doing just fine and proceeding on its eternal course toward ever-greater progress and global goodness. This is whistling past the graveyard.
The lesson-category within grand strategic history is that when an established international system enters its phase of deterioration, many leaders nonetheless respond with insouciance, obliviousness, and self-congratulation. When the wolves of the world sense this, they, of course, will begin to make their moves to probe the ambiguities of the aging system and pick off choice pieces to devour at their leisure.
This is what Putin is doing; this is what China has been moving toward doing in the maritime waters of Asia; this is what in the largest sense the upheavals of the Middle East are all about: i.e., who and what politico-ideological force will emerge as hegemon over the region in the new order to come. The old order, once known as the American Century has been situated within the modern era, an era which appears to be stalling out after some 300-plus years. The replacement era will not be modern and will not be a nice one.
Read more here:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/opinion/when-wolves-attack.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=2
