The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives
Zbigniew Brzezinski (1997)
Everybody wants peace on Earth. The political leaders wish for peace in their land. Believers of all faiths, without fail, include in their daily prayers call for eternal peace on Earth. We all know this type of bliss, smiling from ear to ear without an iota of worry in their minds, stays only as a figment of our imaginations.
Like in the narration of Kali and the state of the world, life is a constant battle without the weak and the mighty. It is a continual flux of turn of tides of the interplay between the powerful crumbling down to become weak and the downtrodden rising from the ashes. Empires may crumble, and slaves may turn emperors.
This book is the perspective of President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. Written in 1997, when the USA was the lone superpower, Russia and China were weak, and Islamic Jihadism was unheard of, some of the strategies that made a lot of sense then seem inappropriate now. Even Brzezinski seem to change his viewpoint.
From time immemorial, big kingdoms underwent the same fait accomplis. The Persians, Romans, Chinese, Russian all grew too big, immersed in imperial power and subsequently break apart due to internal fatigue, decay, hedonism, loss of central control and military creativity.
After the WW2, it was basically a power play between the Communist and the Capitalists. The Soviet Union was on one side, together with the Eastern Block of Europe and China, who had issues with Big Brother Russia, versus America as the leader of the free world. Strategic partnerships were built by America with countries in the so-called 'buffer zones' to curtail each others' advancement and their spread of influence. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, China, which all the while been the underdeveloped poor communist cousin of the Soviet Union had awoken from its slumber. There was a need to monitor their prowess and keep them under the US radar. Germany and France help to maintain equilibrium in Europe. The Japanese, whose wings were clipped after their WW2 fiasco, is now at the mercy of the US and the world at large. The newly liberated East European countries ranging from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic nations make another wall of defence just in case the mighty Russians, under the leadership of Putin, who yearn for the glory days of Soviet Union decide to dominate the world. At the back of these, the main agenda is the control of oil lines across the middle of Eurasia.
Eurasia which makes up more than two-thirds of the land mass of Earth draws the attention of all world power as most of the world population, economic and natural resources are found. In the author's opinion, for the USA to stay as the lone super-power of the world, it is crucial no other challenger dominates Eurasia.
Like a Chess Master, American places all the pieces in essential places, all with vital reasons with the ultimate goal of winning the board game. In that process, necessary sacrifices had to be made.
After the WW2, it was basically a power play between the Communist and the Capitalists. The Soviet Union was on one side, together with the Eastern Block of Europe and China, who had issues with Big Brother Russia, versus America as the leader of the free world. Strategic partnerships were built by America with countries in the so-called 'buffer zones' to curtail each others' advancement and their spread of influence. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, China, which all the while been the underdeveloped poor communist cousin of the Soviet Union had awoken from its slumber. There was a need to monitor their prowess and keep them under the US radar. Germany and France help to maintain equilibrium in Europe. The Japanese, whose wings were clipped after their WW2 fiasco, is now at the mercy of the US and the world at large. The newly liberated East European countries ranging from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic nations make another wall of defence just in case the mighty Russians, under the leadership of Putin, who yearn for the glory days of Soviet Union decide to dominate the world. At the back of these, the main agenda is the control of oil lines across the middle of Eurasia.
Eurasia which makes up more than two-thirds of the land mass of Earth draws the attention of all world power as most of the world population, economic and natural resources are found. In the author's opinion, for the USA to stay as the lone super-power of the world, it is crucial no other challenger dominates Eurasia.
Like a Chess Master, American places all the pieces in essential places, all with vital reasons with the ultimate goal of winning the board game. In that process, necessary sacrifices had to be made.
Comments
Post a Comment