Welcome to the Second Cold War
Veteran cold warrior, Henry Kissinger, looks to China and sees storm clouds on the horizon. The U.S. and China are entering a cold war, says Hank, but it won't be a replay of the First Cold War that pitted America against the Soviet Union.
The 97-year-old former US secretary of state, who as an adviser to president Richard Nixon crafted the 1971 unfreezing of relations between Washington and Beijing, said the mix of economic, military and technological strengths of the two superpowers carried more risks than the cold war with the Soviet Union.
Strains with China are “the biggest problem for America, the biggest problem for the world,” Kissinger told the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum on global issues.
Kissinger said that while nuclear weapons were already large enough to damage the entire globe during the cold war, advances in nuclear technology and artificial intelligence – where China and the US are both leaders – have multiplied the doomsday threat.
“We have developed the technology of a power that is beyond what anybody imagined even 70 years ago.”
The cold war between the US and the Soviet Union during the decades after the second world war was more one-dimensional, focused on nuclear weapons competition, said Kissinger.
“The Soviet Union had no economic capacity. They had military technological capacity,” he said.
“(They) didn’t have developmental technological capacity as China does. China is a huge economic power in addition to being a significant military power.”
I shudder at the thought of taking the words of Kissinger, without debate, seriously.
ReplyDeleteHis words have resulted in a more conflict than those of Tony Blair.
Scott Ritter would have issue with Kissinger's comments on Russia, who in his book Scorpion King,
blasts the US on their view of nuclear weapons .
Kissinger and the US are , again, fighting the last war with today's wars been won and lost daily by nations that hack for intellectual properties and others ingraining misinformation as to create instability ..
Our confused attitudes upon foreign affairs is testament to that!
When will Kissinger and his ilk realise that a nuclear war cannot be won and that whilst not admitted , intellectual property theft is a two way street!!
TB
I understand your skepticism about Henry the K, TB. That doesn't mean he's wrong. His point that, unlike the Soviet Union, China's burgeoning economy makes it a more formidable adversary is valid.
DeleteThere's nothing novel or particularly original in Kissinger's comments. All of this was on the table in a couple of war studies courses I took online a few years ago and the lecturers were some of the best, especially the crew from King's College, London.
The Soviets never really threatened American dominance, not economically, and that meant the MAD factor prevailed over the military challenge. Then a sudden and deep collapse in world oil prices severed Moscow's lifeline, forcing its retreat and ending with Gorbachev and Yeltsin dissolving the Soviet Union. Peace In Our Time! Yeah, right.
The dynamic between the U.S. and China, although largely of America's own making, stokes both military and economic rivalries. This is classic Thucydides Trap stuff. The academics don't think there'll be an overt, planned shooting war. The danger they posit is of a war breaking out inadvertently through some relatively minor event (think Franz Ferdinand) in a contested territory (South China Sea?).
Of course. I can't believe that the libertarians didn't know where where this would go when they showed them how to separate the metal from the slag. I'll give you as many shitloads of economic capacity as you can handle if you'll help me sell my crap and let me keep my slaves.
ReplyDeleteThis is the basis of Kevin Phillips' analysis that dominant powers have a habit of foolishly using their wealth to grow their successor's economy. Once that occurs it becomes a question of whether the transition is peaceful or not.
DeleteOnce Africa gets its act together it will likely be the next source of cheap labour and the China advantage will be gone.
ReplyDeleteIntellectual property advantages for commerce or weapons is available through hacking; just ask the Iranians!
Once ( yes it's inevitable) more countries such as Iran have nuclear weapons they cannot be invaded .
Future conquests will be decided at the computer desk anywhere in the world.
We saw the start of it with the election of Trump.
TB
Show me a weapon that's never been used.
DeleteThis is another testimony on how Chief Dr Lucky cured my HIV disease. Do you need a cure for your HIV disease? Do you want to be cured from your cancer disease? Or you want to be free from any type of disease. Kindly visit his website https://chiefdrluckyherbaltherapy.wordpress.com/ . He just cured my HIV disease and I’m very grateful to him, he is the only herbalist that can cure you.
ReplyDeleteWhatsApp number : +2348132777335
Via Email : chiefdrlucky@gmail.com
Thank you all for reading,
God bless"