December 04, 2003
IT ENDED IN 1914 (via Mike Daley):
The end of the west: Europe is no longer the centre of the world - the future belongs to the might of Asia (Martin Jacques, December 4, 2003, The Guardian)
Throughout the cold war, Europe was the centre of the world. The global fault line ran through the heart of Europe. In the face of the Soviet threat, the world's most powerful country, the United States, felt that it must act in concert with western Europe, in an organic alliance, the western alliance, that gave rise to the modern notion of "the west". The communist threat persuaded the US to subordinate, at least in part, its own identity and interests to that of "the west". The revolutions of 1989, which brought the cold war to an end and transformed the physiognomy of global politics, were exclusively European events. In reality, though, the cold war served to exaggerate Europe's true position in the world and mask its underlying decline; 1989 was the last time that Europe was the centre of global affairs. Ever since, its star has been on the wane. That fact alone is a portent of the world that is now slowly taking shape.
Let's not get carried away here--during the Cold War we thought Europe would make a nice battlefield. It was hardly a vital partner. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2003 09:43 PM
Hardly. Our policy was that the survival of non-communist West Germany was so important that we were prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons to defeat the invading Red Army, even with the full knowledge that this would likely escalate to an intercontinental nuclear exchange that could kill 100,000,000 Americans.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at December 4, 2003 11:20 PMSteve:
No one who ever flew on Aeroflot actually thought they could deliver the warheads here--and Germany was expendable.
Posted by: oj at December 4, 2003 11:27 PMOrrin:
C'mon. So you agree with the anti-American European left?
Posted by: Peter B at December 5, 2003 06:13 AMWhen it has suited us the line between civilization and the barbarian hordes has
shifted between Russia, The Danube, The Rhine,
The English Channel and back again.
I believe with O.J. that Germany was expendable
in a worst case cold war scenario.
Peter:
Yes. The Cold War, like WWI & WWII, was a mistake. The USSR was no threat to us.
Posted by: oj at December 5, 2003 10:11 AMSo the future will be dominated by either the rabid national socialists of China or the hindu fundamentalists of India?
Neither is appealing.
Posted by: M. at December 5, 2003 02:32 PMI hear Shanghai doesn't have electicity today because of a shortage of coal, although China has more coal in the ground than any other country. It will take a while -- generations, at least -- for rampant Asia to catch up even with France.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 5, 2003 02:35 PM