Skip to main content

Following The Bouncing Ball Of Foreign Affairs

Image
By

Signals in foreign affairs seem to be going off in all directions these days. One that caught the public by surprise was the American president's suggestion at the recent G-7 meeting that perhaps Russia should be allowed to rejoin the group. That was quickly shot down, but the effort had been made and soon after, the French president announced that Iran was willing to meet with the Americans at the presidential level. That President Putin and Russia have had a close relationship with Tehran and the timing of the Trump suggestion of returning Russia to a place “under the tent rather than outside” was never connected. Of course, this all became irrelevant when Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, told his president Rouhani that there would be no talks until the U.S. ended all sanctions. From an analyst's standpoint it looked like the great behind-the-scenes maneuvering had been short circuited.

Next came the announcement from Moscow that U.S. Senator Ron Johnson would not be allowed to visit Russia with the already organized Congressional delegation. Apparently, Senator Johnson's past rigorous condemnation of Russia's actions in Crimea and Ukraine had placed him on the dangerous list and he was not welcome. Of course, this set back the perceived evolving Trump/Putin relationship. The next twist came when reports indicated that Putin might receive a personal invitation from Trump to attend the 2020 meeting of the G7 at the American president's personally owned luxury club in Doral, Florida. We'll just have to see on that one.

The ongoing (and off-going) love affair between President Trump and China's Chairman Xi Jinping has had its own contretemps over trade issues that also has its own “on again – off again” character. This has the farm lobby in Washington and the agricultural and finance sectors of Beijing's central government in various forms of near and actual panic. The “order” from the White House demanding American firms abandon their investments and other business dealings with China was shocking, though that was soon converted into old news when the deputy to Chairman Xi stated his country's willingness to down and talk about this matter. The whole affair has been relegated to the back burner as word was carefully “leaked” from Beijing that this was news to them! Well, maybe it's better to have “fake news” than no news at all!

Just as the international diplomatic jitterbug dance was seeming to slow down to and understandable jaunt, the media broke through with the excited news that North Korea was developing – or already had developed – missiles that could penetrate current anti-missile systems. The Japanese media heralded this information with headlines of “We told you so”. Their reaction justified previous warnings from Tokyo, both official and unofficial, that the American presidency was moving too fast with their program of emerging sainthood for Kim Jong-un. Of course, this soon became old news when American intelligence followed up the original information with the fact that they had determined that the DPRK was building a submarine that could be armed with these new super missiles. Now that really was serious.

Meanwhile back on the supposedly more peaceful, if contentious, environmental front, President Macron of France had decided to vigorously condemn the President of Brazil for allowing vast forest fires to flame out of control. The fact that Brazilian farmers started some of the fires seeking to clear land to plant more cash crops such as soybeans for export to China was another complicating factor. The Brazilian President Bolsonaro struck back by taking personally the French attack. Luckily, Macron apparently doesn't speak Portuguese and Bolsonaro doesn't speak French, or else the entire matter would not have been printable. At any rate, calming voices have been energized into placing the Brazilian conflagration into some sort of annual event and really not that dangerous to mankind's need for clean air. That line seems to be working – even if just for the moment.

There is much argument over whether the U.S. major military presence in Afghanistan is taking a back seat to the rise of Iranian supported terrorist planning and action in Syria. Of course, the always prevalent conflicts in in places like Sub-Sahara Africa go on apace. The new push by Russian (GRU – directed) covert paramilitary operations in the Central African Republic hearkens back to similar activities of the 1960's. The French saying of “the more that changes, the more that remains the same” is quite appropriate.  It must really be tough for the various Western ambassadors in these areas to get their own capitals to take any interest. And then there is the crime cartel-sponsored illegal immigration from Central America into the United States, to say nothing of the many other confusing issues emanating from the Middle East and South Asia.

In the end it's just the world moving at its usual whirlwind pace. Hang on. The ride is fast and bumpy!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Game Of Games

By
There has been a great deal of discussion about how one or another major international figure, and other relatively minor ones, are “in the pocket” of this or that political entity. The fact is that all major governments have at their disposal organizations and individuals who specialize in these forms of deception often referred to as “disinformation”. In brief, this activity is simply a way to disseminate propaganda and sometimes even tactically false information for operational purposes. The entire activity has been a staple of rival governmental activity since the earliest of times. Essentially, this political weapon is based on human frailties that are then exploited by the opposing group. The alternatives are endless. It's both an offensive and defensive weapon. We have seen it used recently in the case of the coronavirus where many in the international community placed blame on the Chinese government seeking to embarrass Beijing. To protect themselves, the PRC respond...
Post a Comment
Read more

After Action Report

By
The pandemic of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has exposed the shortcomings of numerous countries, but the profoundly communist Peoples Republic of China seems to have been caught up in its own political insecurity. As usual, the vastly over organized political structure of the PRC resulted in an initial effort to disclaim any role in the evolution of the new virus emanating from the city of Wuhan. At the same time worldwide, similar confused political elements sought to avoid placing blame for the siting of the virus on China - or at least quickly condemning those who did. The fact that it had been recognized in the first week or two of January – or even before that by American and other intelligence services that a new and serious epidemic had hit the city of Wuhan was kept from the public for well over a month in many cases and more in others. It appears that even Beijing's leadership were unaware of what their local security service had been reporting after they learned o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vlad Staying On

By
The West reacted predictably when Vladimir Putin announced he would stay in office after his current term was over. Of course, this was greeted with claims of “dictatorship” outside of Russia. These claims may be justified on the face but are not very insightful. To begin with, it is important to recognize that Putin's background, parentage and upbringing have been carefully confused in official rewriting. There are few facts that seem consistent. It seems fairly sure that his father was a mechanic, but he was raised by his grandparents in most reports. Who his mother was is disputed in several accounts, though there now seems to be agreement on Maria Ivanova Putin (family name: Shelonova). None of this seem to matter very much except that he came from a 'working class” family. What is important is the general agreement that Putka, as he was called in his early years, seemed to be fascinated by the organization of the secret police, the NKVD, as it was then called. It has...
Post a Comment
Read more