Polarity: Us vs. Them, or Us and Us
Us vs. Them, or Us and Us
[Image: Recent history of the “flipping” (reversal) of the Earth’s magnetic poles from the Jurassic Ocean Crust Magnetic Survey 2011 Expedition in the Pacific]
Publication date: 2021-11-06
Two recent conferences have exposed a little nuance in geopolitical analysis. At the Valdai Discussion Club event, Russian Federation President Putin delivered his speech. There has been quite some analysis of it. The Aspen Security Forum was the next event, in which Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the USA Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered some remarks which included his acknowledgment of a "tripolar world". The quote is:
We're entering into a tri-polar world with the US, Russia and China being all great powers.
Some analysts have questioned the tense used. It could easily be argued that we've been in a tripolar world for some time. Nonetheless, it is good for the military leadership of the USA's military forces to acknowledge the known.
However, Putin's comments were far more wide ranging, with the transcript coming in at just under 27 000 words. While I very much appreciate Pepe's analysis, Regis Tremblay interviewed (see sources) Glenn Diesen , a Norwegian Professor at the University of South East Norway, and they took the wider approach that a 1 hour interview allows.
Diesen's articles are collected by MuckRack and are often published at RT as Op-Ed pieces. A recent piece looks at the state of affairs between the "west" and the China/Russia/Eurasian partnership (i.e the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation). The interview crosses numerous topics from international law, international financial instruments, debt and inflation, military balance, Ukraine, Taiwan, culture and religion, and "woke" ideology to inherent divisions in the EU.
Diesen presents one dichotomy which I found illuminating. The USA can admit the multipolarity, which means accepting its no longer a unipolar “power” and try to control the ushering in of that new multipolar system, just as it ushered in the Bretton Woods/UN/IMF/World Bank post WWII system. Or, it can resist and attempt to preserve its sense of unipolar “exceptionalism”.
To quote from Diesen’s Op-Ed, referring to Putin’s speech:
the president also noted that the Chinese word for crisis consisted of two hieroglyphs: danger and opportunity
Sources
Valdai Discussion Club meeting, President Putin, Kremlin, 2021-10-21
The World According to Vladimir Putin, Pepe Escobar, Unz Review, 2021-10-23
Milley Addresses Aspen Security Forum on Today's Military Challenges, Terri Moon Cronk, USA Dept. of Defence News, 2021-11-03
U.S. Acknowledges The Tri-polar World, b., MoonOfAlabama, 2021-11-05
Beset by flagging economies, rising debt & defeat in Afghanistan, US-led West is lashing out at Russia and China in desperation, Prof. Glenn Diesen, RT (Op-Ed), 2021-10-25
Power Shifting East - West Is Confused & Failing - Multipolarity In Greater Eurasia, Regis Tremblay interviews Glenn Disen, Global Conversations, 2021-11-06
Culture
Changes (2015 Remaster), David Bowie, his distributor’s youtube channel, uploaded 2016-08-24; Song originally released on the album Hunkey Dory in June 1971.
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