From James Jay Carafano, The National Interest: "I focused on the top competitors of their time: the powers most successful in mastering the world system of their age. That limits the list to those that competed on the world stage. It rules out some great regional powers—like the Egyptians, the Song Dynasty, Mayans, Incas and the Iroquois nation—that never really pressed their power beyond their own neighborhood."
The 7 Most Mighty World Powers of All-Time
From James Jay Carafano, The National Interest: "I focused on the top competitors of their time: the powers most successful in mastering the world system of their age. That limits the list to those that competed on the world stage. It rules out some great regional powers—like the Egyptians, the Song Dynasty, Mayans, Incas and the Iroquois nation—that never really pressed their power beyond their own neighborhood."
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First Draft of the New Anglosphere. Michael Vlahos @jhuworldcrisis
"Kinship drives culture, and cultural rules shape society. National community in modern times is shaped by imagined kinship and the need for collective belonging and identity. Modern nations construct kinship through the belief that all citizens are related, and thus committed, to one another, and the state itself becomes the central meditative and celebratory agent for the affirmation of national kinship, especially in war. This core dynamic of modern society—the process of building imagined kinship—is projected outward through a nation's relations with other societies, whether they are peaceful or hostile. The nation most dependent on invented kinship as the basis of its politics is the United States, and this characteristic confers both advantages and limitations for the conduct of foreign policy. The advantage of invented kinship is that Americans can theoretically pick and choose both whom in the world we call kin and the importance that their kinship has for our national identity. The limitation of invented kinship is that America's ties of kinship to other societies have a life of their own, waning or deepening over historical time.1 At present, the United States faces a global smorgasbord of kinship needs and clinging legacies, a feast of opportunities and obligations it can neither completely swallow nor walk away from. Imagined kinship is the foundation of national community. It is the cultural process that permits people in a national society to believe collectively that they belong to each other—that they are part of the same kinship construct—even though most of them are likely to be strangers to each other. Imagined community also makes the state the trusted manager of this process, powerfully affirming our connection and commitment to each other in, for example, a time of war. Thus, the collective kinship construct is essential to the very idea of a modern nation-state...." https://globalecco.org/vlahos-america __________________ However, since the Anglosphere well serves the interests of both countries, the governments will likely find compromise on trade, security, and defense. Outside the European Union, and without an alternative in the Anglo-Saxon world, the United Kingdom would count little in the global arena. At the same time, the Anglosphere could alter the geopolitical balance in Trump’s favor, attracting countries such as India, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other former British colonies. With China and Russia increasingly assertive in the global arena and with the European Union deeply embroiled in internal crises, maintaining close ties with a united and prosperous region such as the Anglosphere would be appealing both in economic and security terms. Besides the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, within the whole Anglosphere there is momentum behind reinforcing bilateral relationships. In his recent trip to Washington, even Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, whose political style is very different from Trump’s, declared, “No neighbors in the entire world are as fundamentally linked as we are.” Both Canberra and Wellington are working hard to forge a strong relationship with a post-Brexit London. And despite a less-than-amicable first call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the White House emphasized “the enduring strength and closeness of the U.S.-Australia relationship." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2017-02-21/future-english-speaking-peoples?cid=nlc-twofa-20170223&sp_mid=53490172&sp_rid=dGlwcGFpbmUyMDE1QGdtYWlsLmNvbQS2& amp;spMailingID=53490172&spUserID=MjEwNDg3NjE1OTQyS0&spJobID= 1103856293&spReportId=MTEwMzg1NjI5MwS2 Lessons Not Learned: Viet Cong Infrastructure and the War in South Vietnam
From Robert J. Thompson, Strategy Bridge: "The Taliban resurgence jeopardizes the United States’s ability to conduct a pacification campaign in support of a foreign government. Indeed, the 2016 uptick in Taliban movement in Afghanistan mirrored that of North Vietnamese Viet Cong Infrastructure of the 1970s. Defeating the enemy’s ability to organize and operate is fundamental to pacification. During the War on Terror and the Vietnam War, complex enemy organizations posed a serious challenge to the United States. Highlighting difficulties in pacification for both the Republic of Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War serves as a lesson underscoring the limits of American power to defeat clandestine networks." Demoralizing the Enemy, Concept of Total War, Eliminating Industrial Bases: Carpet Bombing2/21/2017 Origin of Color in the Ancient World: Garments & Religious Insignia, The PHOENICIAN Murex Snail2/17/2017
July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin. Part 2 of 2.
"When an assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, no one could have imagined the shocking bloodshed that would soon follow. Indeed, as award-winning historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might indeed have been avoided entirely had it not been for the actions of a small group of statesmen in the month after the assassination. Whether they plotted for war or rode the whirlwind nearly blind, these men sought to capitalize on the fallout from Ferdinand's murder, unwittingly leading Europe toward the greatest cataclysm it had ever seen. A deeply-researched account of the genesis of World War I, July 1914 tells the gripping story of the month that changed the course of the 20th century." https://www.amazon.com/July-1914-Countdown-Sean-McMeekin/dp/0465060749 When War Fails to End From Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, RealClearBooks: “A long time ago—at least by American standards—the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz wrote: “In War the Result is Never Final.” Clausewitz was arguing that victory creates new problems, and that the beaten might soon be looking for ways to reverse their defeat. After reading Robert Gerwarth's "The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End" (FSG, 2016) about the last days of World War I and the first days of peace, all one can say is: Boy, Howdy!” Corps Commanders of the Bulge From Steven L. Foster, Strategy Bridge: "World War II is not without its exemplars of leadership across all levels of war: tactical, operational, and strategic. Volumes of text have examined the command styles of Eisenhower, Patton, Macarthur, and Bradley at the theater and field army command levels. Likewise, historians have tracked the experiences of companies of infantry soldiers and their non-commissioned officers, lieutenants, and captains. That said, a cursory examination of available texts suggests most explore World War II leadership through a tactical or strategic lens, ignoring the operational level of war and its role as the link between strategic objectives and the battles needed to achieve them . . . " Mastering the Profession of Arms, Part I: The Enduring Nature
From Mick Ryan, War on the Rocks: “Two centuries ago, Carl von Clausewitz described the need for able intellects to lead armies in his work, On War. He noted that any complex activity, virtuously executed, requires the gifts of intellect and temperament, as well as two other indispensable qualities. First, “an intellect that even in the darkest hour retains some glitterings of the inner light which leads to truth.” And, second, the courage “to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.”” |
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December 2023
EXAMPLE OF SUCCESS IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY ACE VENTURA
PAUL RAHE: REALISM IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SPARTA
CONSCIENCE & TEMPORAL AUTHORITY
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POSITIVE LAW vs. CONSCIENCE
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