Category: Commentary

  • Market-States, Challenge of Changing Demographics, and The Netherlands

    Summary Declining birthrates in places like Europe, Japan and Russia and increasing immigration in once homogenous states (like France) is becoming an issue of mainstream discussion. Just last week (January 04 & 05), the WSJ and the Economist both ran articles on the issue of demographics, commenting on the opposite ends but equally faulty premises.…

  • Global Swarm: Explaining GWOT through Thomas Barnett, Huntington, Global Guerillas

    Introduction I wrote a paper some years ago that I’d like to bring out to StrategyUnit, since I feel there is still a lot of room to discuss the (mislabeled) Global War on Terror (GWOT). Indeed, I believe that there is a supreme lacking in the mature development of a conceptual framework to understand the…

  • East Asia Summit: A Future Without America

    This week begins the first East Asia Summit (EAS) with over 16 countries invited, representing “3 billion people and one-fifth of global trade“. As the Washington Post writes: As proposed by Malaysia and championed by China, the summit was conceived as a way for the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to…

  • US and the New Allies?

    As in update to my previous posting “Barnett’s Path to a U.S. Grand Strategy in Three Paragraphs“, Curzon at “Coming Anarchy” has an excellent post (”The New Allies”): The United Kingdom is our main ally inside the EU. Althouh a part of the union, Britain does not use the Euro and emphasizes the “one market”…

  • Barnett’s Path to a U.S. Grand Strategy in Three Paragraphs

    Too many people are stuck in the old ways of thinking, be it ideaologues like neoconservatives to International ANSWER or jingoism of the Anti-China folks. Thomas Barnett is not one of them. In his blog posting today, Thomas Barnett succinctly offers a very different perspective and game plan on what the U.S. must pursue to…

  • UN Reform by Competition?

    Introduction Koffi Annan’s push for UN reform has come and gone. Indeed, as the Washington Post reported last week, there are already moves to push for candidates as Annan retires on December 2005. But it’s unlikely that Koffi Annan can make any reforms in his remaining tenure; and indeed, it must be said that it…

  • Al-Qaida, Salafi, Islamist – What’s in a Name? (A Quick Post)

    NAZI! Communists! Hippies! Its easy to hate and focus on someone when you have a nice quick, short name for them. Lashing out against “Nationalist Socialist”, “Total Socialist System under Centralized Planning” and “Free Spirited non-Conformist” is not easy to do. (And yes, I know some of my descriptions are not absolutely accurate and I…

  • The Paris Riots (and in Denmark too): Europe is Burning – Part I

    The following is more of a commentary/opinion rather than StrategyUnit usual goal of analyses on issues and policies related to security issues. ————————————————————– Update 10.03.05 – A Retraction and Correction: 1) After reading, researching and looking into the issue, I would like to retract my position of countering The Wretched at the Belmont Club 2)…