Chart of the Day (part duh!): NATO-Russia convergence of a different sort
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 12:02AM 
Finally read George Friedman's The Next 100 Years and came away thoroughly disappointed. I think he got some of the ancillaries right, like women's rights, demographics (albeit selectively) and emerging energy technologies, but the scenario? A thinly-veiled reworking of the 20th century (Russia and China fragmenting, then crisis in the 30s, then world war (Japan again! Turks subbing for Nazis, Poland subbing for Stalinist Russia), America triumphs while discovering new energy technologies and a golden age ensues, only to be threatening by too damn many Mexicans showing up in the 90s.
Whew!
The part that really lost me was Russia having to launch a second cold war this decade because of its extremely exposed northwestern flank (you know, the terrain both Hitler and Napoleon used to invade), as if anybody wants to invade that place!
This Economist piece is about such remnants of the first Cold War. What caught my eye was the Russian military's declining share of GDP.
Seems the Putinesque economic miracle, for as long as it lasted, didn't equate to more attention being shown on the military, especially when the US splurged big time across the decade.
Again, the Russians disappoint. (Sigh!)
Give Moscow enough time, and I'm sure we'll finally achieve the fabled convergence.
Reader Comments (1)
Welcome back Tom.
Yeah, the first quarter of the book is intersting enough, but Friedman takes Realism to unrealistic ends. His geopolitics seem permanetly grafted upon geographical determinism to absurd extents.