Tag Archives: civilizational realism

The six Russian national security documents issued since Putin first became president in 2000 display a remarkable conceptual consistency.1 They argue that a polycentric world is emerging and shifting the balance of power from the West to the Asia-Pacific region.2The West is attempting to prevent this, according to Russia, and this will mean greater competition over values and less cooperation in combating global threats like migration, pandemics, global warming and resource scarcity....

While this is an important post worth reading in full, I think Professor Robinson misses the point in speculation about the outcome of the ideological conflict between the US and Russia.  His account is based on political philosophy. It ignores both the economics and the geostrategy of the US based on economics, which is where the rubber meets the road. Principles are only necessary for rationalization of otherwise aggressive behavior aimed at dominance. Political dominance is only...