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Finn Canonica's avatar

Excellent analysis. From my humble Swiss perspective it one more reinforces my view, the China is the more reliable country and much more interested in global piece sustained by international rules of law.

Scott C. Dunn's avatar

Whew. That was beautiful. Very well written. Easy to comprehend.

In the imaginations of American elites, the only country with sovereignty is the United States, according to the United States. The only country fit to decide what is a country and what is not a country, is the United States.

American elites are digging a very deep hole for themselves.

Synthetic Civilization's avatar

This is a sharp articulation of something broader: power now operates by reclassification.

War becomes “law enforcement.” Sovereignty becomes “conditional legitimacy.” Politics becomes jurisdiction.

Once an actor is downgraded across categories, escalation becomes procedural rather than political.

Zysk's avatar

Interestingly China does something similar with its militarised coastguard in the SCS, and Russia with its various Kremlin-aligned criminal organisations (recall the Wagner Group). It seems the great powers are interested in blurring the military distinction altogether. As a trend, that would culminate in total war.

Vincent's avatar

idk mate, i think thats a bit of cope- these are orders of magnitude different. I certainly think wagner group is horrific, but there have long been these sorts of quasi governmental private militias operating throughout the global south. I remember a french company operating in cote d'ivoire when i was youth there. you cant even find said agency on the internet lol

Zysk's avatar

What am I supposedly coping about? I’m not in favour of any of these states. Also, this post isn’t about clandestine ops but about the blurring of the distinction between military and law enforcement, which is precisely what’s going on with China’s coastguard (though Wagner was more like a clandestine op).

钟建英's avatar

Why not call the US a rogue nation and just disqualify any US veto from the Security Council?

Kurt's avatar

Scholars tend to miss the simple fact that Trump is, has, and will always be a simple street thug, enabled by his inheritance of a vast fortune. Law isn’t something that’s ever entered into Trump’s head.