Why The 21st Century May Look Like The 19th

[Annie]

Way too long to post, but very interesting for those that will read:

http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=ee167382-bd16-4b13-beb7-08effe1a6844

 

[Diuretic]

And just as a commentary:

THE end of history has ended. We are no longer living in the post-history period. We are now in the post-post-history period. Or, to put it another way, history is back.

This is by way of introducing you to a brilliant new analysis of the global geo-strategic picture by Robert Kagan. His new book is called The Return of History and the End of Dreams. I have read only the 8000-word summary piece in The New Republic, but I look forward to the book.

Kagan is the most brilliant of the US big-picture guys, which is not to say I always agree with him. His thesis is that the success of China, and the emergence of an economically powerful and undemocratic Russia, represents the return of the autocrats to a central place in the geo-strategic equation.

The autocrats are increasingly self-confident. More than that, they believe their system is in the best interest of their countries. This self-confidence and authentic belief are changing geo-strategic equations in quite fundamental ways.

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com...omments/future_in_firm_grip_of_new_autocrats/

Sheridan is usually heavily ideological (right wing of course) but I thought this piece was good.