Ukraine
I've been doing some blogging and comment on the Ukrainian situation over at Fistful (there's also a good post on it at Europhobia)
What's interesting about the situation (as well as the way it mirrors last year's events in Georgia, almost exactly one year on) is the geopolitical aspects of it and the way the old Cold War proxy battles between the USSR and the West are being refought on new territories. Of course, the Cold war itself was just the old Western Europe vs Imperial Russia battles fought under new names with new allies on a global scale - it'd be interesting to be around in a few hundred years time to see how historians look at the 19th and 20th centuries. I expect we'd be surprised by a few of their ways of looking at it.
Anyway, I don't want to turn into one of those bloggers who goes on about geopolitics for days and days as though everything I'm saying is Holy Writ and the absolute truth of what is happening in the world, but I think it's interesting to note that while the attention of most people is focused on the 'war on terror', there's a longer term conflict going on behind the scenes as the Western powers continue their attempts to encircle and neuter Russia while it prepares to come back while strengthening and reclaiming it's periphery. Which way Ukraine turns - west or east - is just the latest battle, though how this plays out could determine where the next round will be. Onward to Minsk or back to Tbilisi? And then again, there's always Uzbekistan simmering away and waiting for a crisis to bring it to the world's attention.
Update: The Independent has an article on Ukraine's position in the new 'Great Game'.
What's interesting about the situation (as well as the way it mirrors last year's events in Georgia, almost exactly one year on) is the geopolitical aspects of it and the way the old Cold War proxy battles between the USSR and the West are being refought on new territories. Of course, the Cold war itself was just the old Western Europe vs Imperial Russia battles fought under new names with new allies on a global scale - it'd be interesting to be around in a few hundred years time to see how historians look at the 19th and 20th centuries. I expect we'd be surprised by a few of their ways of looking at it.
Anyway, I don't want to turn into one of those bloggers who goes on about geopolitics for days and days as though everything I'm saying is Holy Writ and the absolute truth of what is happening in the world, but I think it's interesting to note that while the attention of most people is focused on the 'war on terror', there's a longer term conflict going on behind the scenes as the Western powers continue their attempts to encircle and neuter Russia while it prepares to come back while strengthening and reclaiming it's periphery. Which way Ukraine turns - west or east - is just the latest battle, though how this plays out could determine where the next round will be. Onward to Minsk or back to Tbilisi? And then again, there's always Uzbekistan simmering away and waiting for a crisis to bring it to the world's attention.
Update: The Independent has an article on Ukraine's position in the new 'Great Game'.
Nick got away with this at 10:22 AM
1 Comments:
don't forget belarus - equally dodgy election recently - and azerbaijan - "elected" hereditary president. and, might there be a case for labelling the last russian elections as flawed? putin neutering the media? using the "law" to tackle oligarchical opponents?
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