Mike Norman Economics

“In 2019, we will hold six exercises on the territory of four countries: Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, – Valery Semerikov said, answering journalists’ questions. – The total number of forces involved, according to our calculations, will be about 12 thousand”. During these operational and strategic exercises of the CSTO Joined forces “Combat brotherhood – 2019,” as reported, an entire complex of measures of prevention or deterrent, as well as resolution of military conflict...

Just as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen alluded to, many of the “dissidents silenced” are media platforms literally run by foreigners. This includes the US State Department-funded and directed Voice of America and Radio Free Asia as well as the previously American-owned and operated Cambodia Daily newspaper.There are also political entities like the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) whose members regularly operate out of Washington D.C. itself.CNRP leader Kem Sokha has openly admitted...

This is probably a "should-read" but I consider it a must-read — all the way to the end, including two short works on freedom by Ivan Ilyin that Paul Robinson has translated for this post.IrrussianalityFreedomPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Skepticism is growing. Why it doesn't matter too much.

President Trump doesn't seem to have any idea of what is in the box. He may find out soon.Strategic Culture FoundationTo Think Outside the Box, It Helps First to Understand What’s IN the Box Alastair Crooke | founder and director of the Conflicts Forum, and former British diplomat and senior figure in British intelligence and in European Union diplomacy

The "Indo-Pacific" region is part of the rimland around China from the south and east that the US needs to control from the sea to "contain" (surround) China. The worst case scenrio for the US would be a strategic alliance of Russia, China, and India. The strategic alliance between Russia and China already exists and they are wooing India.Strategic Culture FoundationDebunking the Indo-Pacific Myth Pepe Escobar

Like the Vietnamese, they outlasted the occupiers. But it remains to be seen whether the Taliban will repeat a forcing of ignominious withdrawal, tail between the legs. Remember the helicopters evacuating the remnant from the rooftops of Saigon? President Trump's instincts are correct on this, but he is trapped by the politics and optics.Strategic Culture FoundationThe Taliban Have Won in Afghanistan Brian Cloughley | British and Australian armies’ veteran, former deputy head of the UN...

I have written about this previously in the comments. Alexander Dugin summarized the main points pretty well. To understand the dynamic going on now in international relations, foreign affairs, military affairs, geopolitics, geostrategy, and choice of tactics, it is necessary to understand this outline in some detail. This is the grand chessboard on which the great game is being played presently between the land powers and their allies and the sea powers and their allies. The stakes are...

Articles, editorials, and calls to action over the Chinese region of Xinjiang (officially known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) have filled countless pages of news in the past few years. A chorus of voices spanning the American political spectrum, from Marco Rubio to Ilhan Omar, call for sanctions and condemnation of China’s actions in the region. This full-court press has ramped up in the last few months, with back-to-back “exposés” released by multiple news outlets. Since the...

The reason that Donald Trump is considered so outré is that he is replacing the genteel veneer of "soft power" of the ascendant American imperium with hard power. America the "liberator" is showing its colors as the bully. Elite critics of Trump don't disagree with what he is doing, but rather how he is doing it. No one is supposed to see it, and Trump is making things obvious.CounterpunchThe US Imperium Comes Out Binoy Kampmark