Friday, January 17, 2020

Your Arrow Can Pierce the Sky, But Ours Has Gone into Orbit: The Third Newsletter (2020). — Vijay Prashad


Excellent analysis of Sino-American geostrategic rivalry, which is both economic and military. Geostrategy is concerned with the means to effect geopolicy, and the overall geopolicy is the US is global hegemony — preventing rivals from rising. China's is again to become the central realm as the hub of global commerce, with a projected date of 2049, the hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Revolution. These objectives are obviously incompatible.

The US views China as the greatest threat to longterm US dominance and hybrid warfare is being engaged both economically and militarily. The economic war has gone "hot" with the trade war, while the military phase is still preparatory. But it is still a war even if a "cold war" using hybrid warfare, and the US is actively seeking to "contain" China behind the wall of the first island chain, from which the US navy and military bases can pick off China's military assets. China's strategy is denial of access and deterrence.

Donald Trump's preferred strategy is to carry a big stick militarily but not use it unless necessary, e.g., to respond to aggression. He prefers to use economic warfare and propaganda, whereas neocons and liberal interventionists are more apt to see military solutions as the more effective options for a superpower.

Tricontinental
Your Arrow Can Pierce the Sky, But Ours Has Gone into Orbit: The Third Newsletter (2020).
Vijay Prashad, Globetrotter

1 comment:

Peter Pan said...

{Set of Trump's actions} /\ {Set of strategies} = {Null set}

Trump has no strategy with regard to China. No wonder the foreign policy establishment within the bowels of the Pentagon are having conniptions.