Geopolitical thread

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 28 Apr 2014 09:37

Tourism, Construction and an Ongoing Nuclear Crisis at Chernobyl

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 03 May 2014 13:35

What is its biggest blessing is also its biggest curse.

The Indian Express ‏@IndianExpress 3h

Venezuela arrests 58 foreigners on suspicion of inciting protests http://iexp.in/IVw83041

Venezuela’s government said Friday that it has arrested 58 foreigners, including an American, on suspicion of inciting violent street protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres denounced what he called a plot to promote unrest aimed at overthrowing the government and said that among those detained was a man identified as Todd Michael Leininger, who he said had with him two pistols, two assault rifles, military uniforms and a U.S. passport.

“What was this man doing with those armaments at a guarimba (barricade) in San Cristobal,” said Rodriguez Torres about Leininger, 32. San Cristobal is a city in western Venezuela.

Among the other foreigners arrested were Colombians, a Spaniard and an Arab, Rodriguez Torres said.

Of course incompetent government adds fuel to the fire. If as the report suggests inflation is at 57% the government has failed it people at some level.

vijaykarthik · Post by **vijaykarthik** » 06 May 2014 18:06

US has signed a new agreement with Djibouti. Purpoted to be a 70mn USD deal / year.
Me thinks its to do with Yemen and staying close to the Horn of Africa. Loosely ensure that choke point is safe?

Strategic ties

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 10 May 2014 09:57

Steven Pinker’s history of thought

chandrasekhar.m · Post by **chandrasekhar.m** » 16 May 2014 10:26

I am reading the book Revenge of Geography by Robert Kaplan. In there he writes in Chap 2 in page 32 of the hardcover edition:

In a stunning summation of geographical determinism, the late geographer Paul Wheatley made the observation that "the Sanskrit tongue was chilled to silence at 500 metres," so that Indian culture was in essence a lowland phenomenon

He gives this book as the reference for that quote by Wheatley - A New History of Southeast Asia by M C Rickfels and others

I can't get that book or any other references online where Wheatley actually writes what Kaplan has quoted.
Can anyone shed more light on what Wheatley meant and whether he was right or not, and if Kaplan is taking the quote out of context?
If the above is asking too much, please at least point me in some right direction to make progress on this issue?

Thank you. I will also crosspost this question in the Sanskrit thread.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 16 May 2014 20:22

Pune's altitude is 560m above sea level.

chandrasekhar.m · Post by **chandrasekhar.m** » 17 May 2014 03:54

^^^ And the Sanskrit tongue and culture was definitely not silenced when it reached Pune. It had even spread into the mountainous regions of the current day "-stans" and Himalayas too.

Hence, was Wheatley lying and Kaplan is blindly quoting him without using his brain? Somehow, I think I am mistaken or still ignorant of what both of them actually mean.

Anyway, I am pasting some more text from the book in which that quote appears so that people understand the context:

Why is China ultimately more important than Brazil? Because of geographical location: even supposing the same level of economic growth as China and a population of equal size, Brazil does not command the main sea lines of communication connecting oceans and continents as China does; nor does it mainly lie in the temperate zone like China, with a more disease-free and invigorating climate. China fronts the Western Pacific and has depth on land reaching to oil- and natural-gas-rich Central Asia. Brazil offers less of a comparative advantage. It lies isolated in South America, geographically removed from other landmasses.17

Why is Africa so poor? Though Africa is the second largest continent, with an area five times that of Europe, its coastline south of the Sahara is little more than a quarter as long. Moreover, this coastline lacks many good natural harbors, with the East African ports that traded vigorously with Arabia and India constituting the exception. Few of tropical Africa’s rivers are navigable from the sea, dropping as they do from interior tableland to coastal plains by a series of falls and rapids, so that inland Africa is particularly isolated from the coast.18 Moreover, the Sahara Desert hindered human contact from the north for too many centuries, so that Africa was little exposed to the great Mediterranean civilizations of antiquity and afterward. Then there are the great, thick forests thrown up on either side of the equator, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Congo basin, under the influence of heavy rains and intense heat.19 These forests are no friends to civilization, nor are they conducive to natural borders, and so the borders erected by European colonialists were, perforce, artificial ones. The natural world has given Africa much to labor against in its path to modernity.

Check the list of the world’s most feeble economies and note the high proportion that are landlocked.20 Note how tropical countries (those located between 23.45 degrees north and south latitudes) are generally poor, even as most high-income countries are in the middle and high latitudes. Note how temperate zone, east–west oriented Eurasia is better off than north–south oriented sub-Saharan Africa, because technological diffusion works much better across a common latitude, where climatic conditions are similar, thus allowing for innovations in the tending of plants and the domestication of animals to spread rapidly. It is no accident that the world’s poorest regions tend to be where geography, by way of soil suitability, supports high population densities, but not economic growth—because of distance from ports and railheads. Central India and inland Africa are prime examples of this.21

In a stunning summation of geographical determinism, the late geographer Paul Wheatley made the observation that “the Sanskrit tongue was chilled to silence at 500 meters,” so that Indian culture was in essence a lowland phenomenon.22 Other examples of how geography has richly influenced the fate of peoples in ways both subtle and obvious are legion, and I will get to more of them in the course of this study.

But before we move on, let me mention the example of the United States. For it is geography that has helped sustain American prosperity and which may be ultimately responsible for America’s panhumanistic altruism. As John Adams notes, “There is no special providence for Americans, and their nature is the same with that of others.”23 The historian John Keegan explains that America and Britain could champion freedom only because the sea protected them “from the landbound enemies of liberty.” The militarism and pragmatism of continental Europe through the mid-twentieth century, to which the Americans always felt superior, was the result of geography, not character. Competing states and empires adjoined one another on a crowded continent. European nations could never withdraw across an ocean in the event of a military miscalculation. Thus, their foreign policies could not be grounded by a universalist morality, and they remained well armed against one another until dominated by an American hegemon after World War II.24

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 17 May 2014 20:51

http://rt.com/op-edge/159384-uk-budget- ... ilderberg/

Bilderberg's silent takeover of Britain’s $60bn defense budget

Beginning his working life in the aviation industry and trained by the BBC, Tony Gosling is a British land rights activist, historian & investigative radio journalist.

Published time: May 16, 2014

Democracy had another near-fatal stroke, and the military industrial complex further tightened UK defense spending with the appointment of ex-army officer and Tory hothead Rory Stewart MP as the new chairman of Westminster’s Defence Select Committee.

Last week the Home Affairs Select Committee delivered a damning verdict on Britain's defense and secret service oversight, on taxpayer accountability. It said the refusal of the director general of MI5, Andrew Parker, to appear before them and lack of any effective supervision was "undermining the credibility of the intelligence agencies and parliament itself."

Surely nothing could surpass the ‘Dodgy Dossier', the criminal conspiracy that led to the US and Britain, as the Arab League put it in 2003, to 'Opening the Gates of Hell in Iraq'? But with Stuart's appointment to oversee public scrutiny of UK military spending just two weeks before NATO's political cabal of which he's a member, the Bilderberg conference, meets in Copenhagen later this month, it is clear to those who still have eyes to see that those bloody lessons have not been learned and the worse could be yet to come.
The most powerful private club in the world

In their Christmas 1987 edition, The Economist described Bilderberg as ‘Ne Plus Ultra’ the most powerful private club in the world. Its power has certainly not diminished as the decades have rolled by and neither has its secrecy. Although it began with trades unionists and powerful people it wanted to persuade, in its final days Bilderberg has boiled down to a rotten core of bankers, royalty, arms industry, oil and media barons and Rory Stuart MP, in the tradition of Kissinger, Blair, Cameron, Osborne and Balls, has thrown his lot in with them.

In 1943, half way through the war, the US power elite saw that, barring any big surprises, Hitler was going to lose World War Two, so their ‘War And Peace Studies Group’ of the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) quietly began to prepare the Marshall Plan for the post-war world. Alongside the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a sizable budget was set aside to fund a range of activities which would ensure Europeans didn't vote communist and were welded economically, culturally and politically to the US for the foreseeable future.

British soldier Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Lock (C) checks his equipment before conducting a patrol with soldiers of the 1st Batallion of the Royal Welsh in streets of Showal in Nad-e-Ali district, Southern Afghanistan, in Helmand Province.(AFP Photo / Thomas Coex )

British soldier Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Lock (C) checks his equipment before conducting a patrol with soldiers of the 1st Batallion of the Royal Welsh in streets of Showal in Nad-e-Ali district, Southern Afghanistan, in Helmand Province.(AFP Photo / Thomas Coex )
Born in a Nazi ‘witches cauldron’ of British blood

Bilderberg's first chairman, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was born into the German aristocracy. He joined the Nazi party at university, then the SS but he married into the Dutch royal family, dropping the silver deaths-head and black SS uniform before the war. His newly adopted Holland was invaded by his old Nazi friends in 1941, so he fled to Britain with Dutch Queen Wilhelmina and his wife, Princess Juliana.

As a former SS officer he was scrutinized by the Admiralty's wartime spymaster, Ian Fleming who, after a year of watching Bernhard, signed him to the British army as a trusted Dutch liaison officer.

With 1944 came one of Bernhard’s most important jobs: to supervise the Dutch underground in the run-up to September's liberation of large parts of Holland. Field Marshall Montgomery’s audacious airborne operation, the biggest in history, depicted in Cornelius Ryan’s 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, was codenamed 'Market Garden' and intended to end the war by Christmas.

As liaison officer for the coming Arnhem deliverance, Bernhard sent in Dutch spy, Christiaan Lindemans, codename 'King Kong', ten days beforehand to prepare resistance fighters for the allies lunge through Eindhoven, Nijmegen and over the Rhein into Arnhem.

But instead of making contact with the Dutch underground, Bernhard’s 'King Kong' found some German soldiers and demanded to be taken straight to the Abwehr, German military intelligence. The allies’ plans for the airborne assault were in enemy hands because Bernhard’s precious Lindemans was a double agent. He had wrecked the allies’ all-important element of surprise.

‘King Kong’ was arrested and quizzed after the war by the British but never got a chance to tell his story because, under Dutch orders, he was whisked off to Germany and died in suspicious circumstances.

Operation Market Garden went ahead on Sunday September 17, 1944, but the British paratroopers at Arnhem were quickly split and surrounded by forces containing self-propelled guns, tanks and crack SS troops, who happened to be resting nearby. Frost's 2nd battalion held on to the bridge leaving the rest of the 1st Airborne Division surrounded in what the Nazis called the Hexenkessel or 'witches cauldron', pinned down in the suburb of Oosterbeek.

On Wednesday 20 September, 1944, as British airborne Colonel John Frost’s remaining paratroopers were being mauled by SS Panzers at Arnhem Bridge, the tanks of the Grenadier Guards, along with US paratroopers, were tantalizingly close, destroying the last German defenses down the road in Nijmegen. Ironically, it was a young captain, who was also to chair the Bilderberg meetings in later life, Lord Peter Carrington, who was leading the Grenadier battle group of Sherman tanks as they took the penultimate bridge. At 8 o'clock that evening, he was just a 20-minute drive from reinforcing Frost at the Arnhem Bridge, and victory.

But although they still had eight hours or so before Arnhem Bridge would finally fall into German hands, Carrington’s force, along with the Irish guards, of a hundred or so tanks inexplicably stopped, just over the Nijmegen Bridge in the village of Lent, for an eighteen hour rest. After the war, 10 SS Panzer Division General Heinz Harmel mocked Carrington saying, “The British tanks made a mistake when they stayed in Lent. If they had carried on it would have been all over for us.”

'Colonel Frost later put the blame,' as Stuart Hills reports in 'By Tank To Normandy', 'firmly on the lack of drive by Guards Armoured,' of which Carrington's Grenadiers were the spearhead. 'Comparing their relatively light casualties with those suffered by the British 1st Airborne and US 82nd. Forty years later,' in 1984, 'he stood on the bridge at a reunion, shook his fist and roared a question into the air for the guards. 'Do you call that fighting!'

So Bilderberg’s first 1954 venue in Oosterbeek, Holland, was highly significant, being the same spot where a decade before the British army had suffered nearly 10,000 casualties in of one of the last Nazi bloodbaths of World War II. Bernhard had given the game away and when it looked like, despite his treachery, the brave allied soldiers might pull it off, Carrington and his corps of tanks ground to a halt for an eighteen hour tea break.

AFP Photo / Dan Chung

AFP Photo / Dan Chung
Psychos always return to the scene of the crime

Like the psychopath, who feels compelled to return to the scene of the crime, Prince Bernhard returned to Oosterbeek to chair the inaugural Bilderberg meeting in 1954. The conferences led to the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which started the European Economic Community (EEC) three years later.

Surrounded by the great and good of the post war world, the prince hoped nobody would examine his reasons for choosing Oosterbeek. At the best it was an in-joke – at the worst the battle was thrown. Whatever way you look at it sixty years on, the coded message from that first Bilderberg meeting should be clear to us now. Ten years after the war, the Nazis were back.
The seventy year Bilderberg project is almost complete

So seventy years since the Arnhem slaughter and sixty years since the first Bilderberg conference, the EEC has become the EU. NATO's new feudal oligarchy of Western banksters and multinationals own and control all the big political parties as well as almost everything that moves both sides of the Atlantic.

Some saw it coming: former SS general Paul Hausser, who became chief of HIAG, the German SS veterans group after the war, claimed that "the foreign units of the SS were really the precursors of the NATO army." Others detailed the Nazis' transformation from military to financial empire including former CBS News correspondent Paul Manning in his 1981 book 'Martin Bormann Nazi in Exile'.

Bilderberg’s latest wheeze is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This treaty makes voting pointless by letting multinationals sue governments and will leave only the thinnest veneer of democracy for the mainstream media to chew on both in Europe and America. The ‘nation states’ will become mere prefectures and the European Commission will be the unelected government of the United States of Europe.

As ordinary people across Europe and America cry out for decent basic standards such as fresh water, food, shelter, healthcare, heating and full employment, the mainstream media barely hear them because this is not the Bilderberg way. Instead, these pinstriped fascists bury us in debt, steal our leisure time, erode quality time with children, friends and family, and then blame us for demanding a fair share of the rewards of human progress.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 18 May 2014 20:14

The spin is good and read carefully

Shalom Modi: India and Israel look to deepen ties following victory of the Hindu right

Israel’s Best Friend in South Asia?

If that is the case, why did journalist Palash Ghosh write in the Indian business press that Narendra Modi is “Israel’s best friend in South Asia”? After all, much of the Indian ruling class is committed to the military and commercial ties with Israel. Ghosh reflected something that had been pointed out by the Israeli academic Yiftah Shapir (Tel Aviv University) recently. India, said Shapir, is not a reliable ally since it has not fully “given up its non-aligned identity. India’s behavior in international forums does not indicate that it can be relied on to help Israel in any difficult situation. India’s position on all aspects of the Israeli-Arab conflict is not a neutral one, rather is decidedly pro-Palestinian.”

Shapir comes to this discussion with the view that anything that is not 100% pro-Israeli is 100% pro-Palestinian. He does not acknowledge the distance that the Indian ruling class has moved since the 1980s on West Asian policy. Indeed, during the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2012, the Indian statement was so anemic that the Palestinian Ambassador in Delhi, Adil Shaban Sadeq said it was “too cautious.” India was pushed to release a second statement that criticized Israel for its “disproportionate use of force…which resulted in the death of innocent people.” Nonetheless, the Indian foreign policy establishment and the ruling bloc have straddled their interest in deepened commercial and military ties with Israel alongside a remainder of sentiment for the Palestinian cause.

It needs to be underscored that this latter sentiment is also undergirded by India’s reliance upon Gulf oil, which comes at a small political price. If India were to abandon its rhetorical and diplomatic fealty to the Palestinian cause, it is likely that the Saudis – who also maintain this double game – would not be kind to India’s oil needs and its need to send over seven million Indian workers to the Gulf (these workers remit funds to India which helps balance its foreign reserves). In March 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Shura Council in Saudi Arabia, “There is no issue more important for peace and stability in the region than the question of Palestine. Far too long the brave people of Palestine have been denied their just, legitimate and inalienable rights, including most of all the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state.” This is the kind of sentiment that Shapir has in mind.

The BJP does not share this double view – bullish on the commercial and military ties, bearish on the full diplomatic support for Israeli actions. It comes to the project with an ambition to create a new continent of diplomatic allegiances – Washington, Tokyo, Tel Aviv — an axis of countries that wish to constrain China and the “Muslim World.” Two years ago, Modi’s guru, the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat gave an important address to the Bharatiya Vichar Manch. The main theme was what he perceived as the weakness of Indian foreign policy. “Our image in the international arena is that of a meek nation,” he complained. “Israel and Japan’s vision has made them power nations.” What is needed is a more muscular policy to “effectively counter China,” This policy had to be mirrored on that of the Israelis and the Japanese, two powers that leveraged their national vision to bring disproportionate gains.

What Bhagwat did not mention is that both countries rely on US funds for military aid and a US military umbrella. Their “self-reliance” is utterly compromised by their place in the US military architecture (a Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who wanted to remove a US base, for instance, was hounded out of office in 2010 by the US government). Both the Congress and the BJP seem unfazed by their entry into the US orbit.

Modi had been cagey on foreign policy during the election campaign. It is not his strong suit. A denial of a US visa for a decade rankled. He did indicate a turn toward Japan and an entente with China on the outstanding border issues. Modi said little about West Asia, and hardly anything on Israel. The state that he governed for the past decade has close commercial ties with Israeli firms, but that is the case in most of India. It is not itself an indication of anything.

Modi’s Hindutva, however, has a well-worn track record with Israel. It seeks not only commercial and military ties, but a civilizational and diplomatic connection. This would be welcome in Tel Aviv, which is why there is already talk of a Modi visit to Israel – the first Indian head of government to make this trip. Will India be able to make up the fourth vote on behalf of Israel in the UN along with the United States, Palau and Nauru? It is unlikely. India’s links with the Gulf are necessary and would be jeopardized by any shallow diplomatic pivot to Israel. But that is what Modi’s BJP would prefer.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 18 May 2014 21:28

Well-spun! Under the Modi/BJP dispensation,ndia would prefer to carve out its own destiny rather than be the butler at the White House.

While we do need to counter China with strategic relations with anti-China entities,such alignments will be more bi-lateral rather than part of a US led military bloc that it tried very hard to create under willing lackey Snake-Oil Singh.Indian interests will predominate rather than the interests of firang pwoers.Here is a viewpoint,X-posted from another td.

http://rt.com/op-edge/159536-modi-india ... n-victory/

‘Modi-fied’ India: Implications of BJP’s landslide win

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed into power on Friday riding on the crest of a Narendra Modi tsunami which gave a clear majority to a single party for the first time in India for 30 years and swept the ruling Congress into oblivion.

It has become the worst-ever electoral performance by the Grand Old Party. With Modi emerging as the undisputed strong man of India, this will have its own implications for the world.

Here is my take on the specific countries and regions that are crucial for India.

South Asia/India’s Neighborhood: Modi’s emergence as the undisputed strongman in India and the sole decision-maker should make India’s smaller neighbors more cautious. Nepal and the Maldives have repeatedly cocked a snook at India during their tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh bugged India with their own pinpricks. They could afford to do so as the UPA government was bogged down in coalition politics. This mindset should see a sea change.

Pakistan: The country’s entire leadership, particularly military, is prone to India-bashing, something that would get a fitting verbal lashing from the Modi government if such statements were to emanate from Pakistan. However, the most interesting thing to see in India-Pakistan relations will be whether Pakistani firing from across the Line of Control (LoC), which has picked up momentum in the past couple of weeks, will continue this trend. Incidentally, for the first time in its history, the BJP has won three out of six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, the state which is at the core of the India-Pakistan dispute, and also the venue of the Kargil War in 1999. This in itself should be seen as a huge statement from the people of India to Pakistan.

China: Modi will be more careful when dealing with China. However, it will have to be seen whether China makes a Depsang Valley-like 16-km-deep incursion in Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) under a Modi-led government.

A Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) worker wears a mask of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as they celebrate outside the party office in Guwahati on May 16, 2014 (AFP Photo / Biju Boro)

Russia, Japan: These two countries will be the most important in the entire world from the perspective of the Modi government. The Modi administration will deepen ties with both: Russia to counterbalance the United States and Japan to counterbalance China. The Modi-led India should also see a huge fillip in trade and economic ties with these two countries.

United States: Modi will go slow with the US and wait for the Americans’ overtures before taking the first step. The US has pursued a policy of denying a visa to Modi over his alleged but unproven involvement in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, and has foolishly stuck to this policy when the entire West has changed its stance toward Modi.
Domestic implications

The Indian election results have also come up with three trail-blazing new trends, each one auguring well for the nation of 1.2 billion people.

One: The coalition era that descended on India a quarter century ago is over, as the BJP has crossed the magic number of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha on its own and does not need any allies – pre-poll or post-poll – to run the government. However, it is another question whether Modi, after he takes over as prime minister of India in a few days, will be able to rope in the BJP’s regional allies in his government. The flip side of this is that it does not mean that it is sunset time for regional parties because parties like AIADMK (Tamil Nadu), Trinamool Congress (West Bengal) and Biju Janata Dal (Orissa) have done very well without the support of any party, national or regional.

Two: For the first time, factors like caste, creed, religion and region that have been the bane of Indian politics have been thrown by the wayside. The BJP has posted unprecedented electoral victories in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which are notorious for their caste and religion-based politics. Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state in terms of population and number of MPs in the Lok Sabha, is a classic example. BJP nearly swept the state winning 71 out of 80 seats (as against just ten in the last election). The Samajwadi Party (SP) plummeted to just five seats from its previous tally of 23 seats, while the worst fate befell the Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP (previous tally: 20) which drew a blank despite having the third largest vote share. Both the SP and BSP have, for decades, thrived on parochial political considerations, such as caste and appeasement of Muslims.

Chief Minister of western Gujarat state and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addresses a public rally after his victory in Vadodara on May 16, 2014 (AFP Photo)

Three: In Modi, India has seen for the first time the emergence of a single individual, born in the post-independence era, who is today the most powerful man in India despite humble origins. He has single-handedly outstripped the record of the previously best leader the BJP ever produced – former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He is the only prime ministerial candidate in the history of India to have won by a margin of over 570,000 votes. Ironically, Modi, who contested his first Lok Sabha election from two constituencies, posted this feat from Vadodara in his native state of Gujarat, where the BJP won all 26 Lok Sabha seats, but he is likely to resign from this seat and retain the fiercely-contested Varanasi seat, which he won by a margin of just fifty thousand votes.

For the first time in decades, perhaps since the time of the Congress stalwart and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the world will be dealing with a strong leader who has a mind of his own. It will have to be seen whether Modi displays Shinzo Abe’s Abenomics or pursues hard economic decisions like Margaret Thatcher, or shows the gall to take tough strategic decisions like Vladimir Putin.

The writer is a New Delhi-based independent journalist and strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha

rgosain · Post by **rgosain** » 18 May 2014 23:54

Philip the principal overseas winner from Modi's landslide has been Russia which will secure immediate orders for Kilo subs and an extension of the SSN agreement. The activities of Western NGOs funded by thru the State Department, to disrupt construction of Russian reactors in India, means that the new government will have to order gas-fired power stations, from Gazprom in the interim, whilst the new Russian nuclear reactors are procured to replace those from the USA.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 19 May 2014 07:45

The BRICS summit will be a clear indicator of Mr.M's foreign policy directions.Even though there may be a correction in the "tilt" of our foreign policy,where Dr.Singh's tilt ended up in a horizontal posture (when you were only asked to tilt,why did yourself prostrate?),
and orders go to Russia,I don't think that Mr. M will compromise upon Indian interests like the N-Liability clauses,etc. But certainly the extra reactors at the KKNPP centre will be fast tracked as well as any critical defence deals with Russia.I can certainly see the extra Akula in the pipeline,more N-sub BM cooperation,FGFA project difficulties ironed out,and much greater cooperation between Russian energy cos. and the ONGC. If as some have speculated another "rupee-rouble" formula is worked out,it could mean good news for Indian exporters.Ambassador Kadakin ,very experienced in dealing with India has an exciting and challenging time ahead of him.

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 19 May 2014 23:29

Ananth Krishnan @ananthkrishnan
Interesting: Kolkata, Colombo but no Pakistan in Silk Road/Maritime Silk Road map on Xinhua website pic.twitter.com/omGMN0mCiY

https://twitter.com/ananthkrishnan/stat ... 88/photo/1

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 May 2014 23:41

X-posted....

This apology stuff is a Christian Catholic Church meme of "Peccavi, I have sinned!" Its like a sinner sitting in the box and confessing to the Catholic Priest.

I don't see why Modi should apologize for something he didn't do. Asking for apology is a non-starter and an insult to people of India who voted him with largest number of votes then the next ten leaders in the world.

I don't want to comment on Christie for his people did do something and he took responsibility. Its not like he did it because "buck stops here" mind set. So example of Christie is a non-sequitor.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 21 May 2014 15:37

The Associated Press ‏@AP 26m

BREAKING: Gazprom: Russia, China sign 30-year natural gas supply deal; financial, diplomatic boost for Moscow: http://apne.ws/1lE7OiB

SHANGHAI (AP) — China signed a long-awaited, 30-year deal Wednesday to buy Russian natural gas worth $400 billion in a financial and diplomatic boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin.

Negotiations on the price for the gas had continued into the final hours of a two-day visit by Putin to China, during which the two sides had said they hoped to sign a deal.

The agreement calls for Russia's government-controlled Gazprom to supply state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. with 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov told The Associated Press. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Russian news agencies the contract was worth a total of $400 billion.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 21 May 2014 21:09

Washington Post ‏@washingtonpost 1h

China and Russia sign 30-year, $400B gas deal; analysts say price is "closer to what Russia wanted" http://wapo.st/1jD9kFZ

BEIJING — China signed a long-awaited deal for Russian natural gas Wednesday, giving China a new energy source and Russia a diplomatic boost in the face of sanctions and condemnation for its aggressive actions in Ukraine.

...
On a symbolic level, the deal also provided China and Russia a chance to reaffirm their strategic alliance against the United States, their shared global rival.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew appealed to China to avoid action that might hurt recent Western sanctions against Russia. But China’s booming economy has brought with it a ravenously growing need for energy, especially clean alternatives given its current pollution struggles and reliance on coal.

The agreement allows Russia to diversify its gas exports just as Europe is trying to reduce its consumption of Russian gas in response to the country’s role in the Ukrainian crisis.

“This is Gazprom’s biggest contract. We don’t have a contract like this with any other company,” Miller said at the meeting in Shanghai, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

In the stroke of a pen, the agreement significantly shifted in Russia’s economic relations with its neighbors, creating a new major export market to the east and reducing reliance on European partners at a time when relations are close to an all-time low. Putin called it a “watershed event.”

He said that the implementation of the deal would start “tomorrow.”

The final price for gas negotiated in the deal was not announced, and it was unclear, given the vague nature of the announcement, whether there were other aspects to the accord that remain to be worked out.

Analysts at IHS Energy — who have tracked the progress of the deal, almost 10 years in the making — said in a written analysis that they believe the final agreed price was “closer to what Russia wanted than what China was initially prepared to pay.”

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 22 May 2014 14:33

It seems this new Altai line is in the crosshairs as it enters China through the Xinjiang. Fear could be that once this pipeline is put into operation, other Central Asian nations will join their pipelines to this and the West will be left sucking its thumb.

The Trans-Siberian line is along the preexisting railway route to Vladivostok and should be the main supply to China and Japan and in future it will be linked with the Altai line.

Methinks, above and below news should be seen together.

Blasts kill 31 at market in China's restive Xinjiang region

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A series of explosions struck a market Thursday in the capital of the volatile western Chinese region of Xinjiang, killing 31 people and wounding more than 90 others, state media reported.
China's Ministry of Public Security said the attack was "a serious violent terrorist incident" and vowed to crack down on its perpetrators. President Xi Jinping called for the terrorists behind it to be "severely" punished.
Two SUVs plowed into people gathered at the open market in Urumqi at 7:50 a.m., and explosives were thrown out of the vehicles, China's official news agency Xinhua said.
One of the SUVs then exploded, according to Xinhua, which cited a witness in the market who said he heard a dozen big bangs.

String of recent attacks
The attack at the market comes less than a month after an explosion hit a train station in Urumqi, killing three people and wounding 79 others.
That blast, described as a terrorist attack by Chinese authorities, took place on April 30, just after Chinese President Xi Jinping had wrapped up a visit to the restive region.
Chinese officials have linked a mass knife attack in March that killed 29 people at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming to Islamic separatists from Xinjiang.
They have also blamed separatists for an attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October in which a car rammed into a pedestrian bridge and burst into flames, killing two tourists and the three occupants of the vehicle.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 23 May 2014 04:11

Putin's pivot to the East - Business Line

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 23 May 2014 13:35

Mods can decide if this item stays on this thread
---------------------------------------------->
US officials cut shale estimates by two-thirds

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101692873

Those hoping for a "black gold" rush in California better not wait with bated breath. Federal energy authorities are now echoing the doubts many industry officials have held for years—we could end up recovering only a tiny fraction of the shale oil in California's sprawling Monterey deposit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The new estimate from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, expected to be released in June, says drillers are likely to extract only about 600 million barrels of oil from the reserve that extends across much of central California. That's 96 percent less than the 13.7 billion barrels previously predicted—which was expected to bring in almost 2.8 million jobs and more than $24 billion in tax revenue, the newspaper said.

It also means a reserve containing two-thirds of the shale oil crucial to America's vaunted shale energy boom is actually "stagnant," analyst John Staub, who led the agency's study, told the newspaper.

Experts said Monterey Shale still could become more productive as technologies and methods adapt to deal with the seismic problems in the area's rock formation.

gunjur · Post by **gunjur** » 08 Jun 2014 20:17

Not sure where to post this and also hopefully this hasn't been posted here yet on BRF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YEj02JBFK8

Unlike the video heading, this talks about abu dabhi only. This is a late 60's documentary video about how abu dabhi is trying to cope with sudden oil discovery few years ago, how the desert life of thousands of years is being cobbled up by the modern life.

EDIT: Somehow feel that its not just oil which uplifted the gulf nations, west was also willing to put up infrastructure similar to their own cities and build everything for gulf. If they really wanted they could really have built just the oil infra and taken the oil, and leave the bedouin to his desert life. Not sure why they did allow growth to take place in gulf.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Jun 2014 23:25

pankajs wrote:Mods can decide if this item stays on this thread
---------------------------------------------->
US officials cut shale estimates by two-thirds

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101692873
Those hoping for a "black gold" rush in California better not wait with bated breath. Federal energy authorities are now echoing the doubts many industry officials have held for years—we could end up recovering only a tiny fraction of the shale oil in California's sprawling Monterey deposit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The new estimate from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, expected to be released in June, says drillers are likely to extract only about 600 million barrels of oil from the reserve that extends across much of central California. That's 96 percent less than the 13.7 billion barrels previously predicted—which was expected to bring in almost 2.8 million jobs and more than $24 billion in tax revenue, the newspaper said.

It also means a reserve containing two-thirds of the shale oil crucial to America's vaunted shale energy boom is actually "stagnant," analyst John Staub, who led the agency's study, told the newspaper.

Experts said Monterey Shale still could become more productive as technologies and methods adapt to deal with the seismic problems in the area's rock formation.

Meanwhile Joseph Nye's article claming Shale oil is US geopolitical weapon is doing the rounds on twitter.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 15 Jun 2014 22:59

A portrait of Europe’s white working class

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 16 Jun 2014 06:14

Marion Coutts: 'There is going to be a destruction… the obliteration of a person'

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 20 Jun 2014 23:29

Why Does China Even Care About Scottish Independence?

China is well-known for cracking down on areas seeking self-rule at home. The breakaway regions of Tibet and Xinjiang have become perpetual objects of Beijing's displeasure. That opposition to regional autonomy is now making itself felt abroad. On Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang scolded Scots seeking independence from London.

"We welcome a strong, prosperous, and united United Kingdom," Li said, speaking alongside Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street.

Li's tongue-twister underscores China's stance on separatism at home, where on Monday three alleged Uighur separatists were sentenced to death for their role in an October attack on Beijing's Tiananmen Square that killed six and injured nearly 40. It also speaks, more broadly, to how Scottish nationalism has ignited debates on separatism far beyond London.

Scots will head to the polls in September for a referendum that threatens to split Edinburgh and London after nearly three hundred years of unity. The voting will be closely watched in Brussels, where Scottish independence could have devastating repercussions for the European Union. Pro-Europe feelings run highest in Britain's north, so Scottish secession would proportionally shift the rest of the U.K. toward Euroskepticism -- and could even tip the scales toward a U.K.-EU split in a referendum promised by the Cameron government for 2017. A British departure could be devastating: the U.K. is expected to become the EU's largest economy in the next 20 years and, along with France, is the EU's most important player on the world stage.

Scotland isn't the only region in Europe seeking self-rule, and the outcome of September's referendum will be closely watched by other breakaway regions. Spain's Catalonia region, with a population roughly the size of Scotland's, is seeking greater autonomy from Madrid, and if Scotland wins independence, Catalonians are likely to use Scotland for inspiration in how to relate to its former masters -- and how to manage an application to join the European Union. EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso* said in 2012 that it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for Scotland to secure EU membership after independence, effectively pouring cold water on Edinburgh's hopes for successful sovereignty. And in November, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy decried separatist regions hoping to depart on "solo adventures in an uncertain future."

Those comments reflect EU fears of a British exit after Scottish independence -- but they were also implicit warnings to Catalan nationalists. Madrid has warned separatists that full independence might be unconstitutional, and ruled out a referendum. But Catalan lawmakers have said they'll push ahead with a vote in November anyway.

Foreign opposition to peaceful separatism comes cheap. There are no assets to freeze, no treaties to sign, no rebels to fund. In return for nominal support, a reward: the legitimization of centralized power at home and the warming of relations between capitals abroad.

Li's recent comments cover all of these bases. China-U.K. relations have seen a few bumps in recent years -- the GlaxoSmithKline bribery scandal is only a recent example. Li's comments will not only bolster the legitimacy of central power at home. They should also bring Beijing a little closer to London. Trade deals worth over $23 billion, also signed during Li's visit, should sweeten the deal.

The latest polls suggest that September's referendum will be close. For now, Scots haven't forgotten about allies abroad. Back in February, a representative from the Scottish National Party -- the same group behind the upcoming referendum -- led the Scottish Parliament's first-ever debate on self-immolation in Tibet, implicitly challenging Beijing's authority to rule provinces reaching for autonomy.
Like the coming referendum on Scotland's independence, that conversation should resonate far beyond Edinburgh.

habal · Post by **habal** » 21 Jun 2014 16:15

writer speculates that this is the missing malaysian airliner,

http://bollyn.com/#article_14753

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Jun 2014 02:26

Background on how Afghanistan developed into a problem

Caroe's VSG

....
Sir Olaf Caroe and Viceroy’s Study Group:

For the historical conception of the Great Game and its rules, the authors used the work of the Viceroy’s Study Group (VSG). Sir Olaf Caroe organized the VSG in 1942 in his capacity as Foreign Secretary in Britain’s Government of India. The VSG operated in British India until 1945. Their function was to review British planning for the end of the World War II and India’s independence in the postwar era. The notion of a continuous Great Game that preceded and would survive the withdrawal of British rule in India transfixed the VSG’s analytical work.

As a whole, the product of the VSG represents a canonical summation of British imperial concepts and learning relating to the Great Game.

INSIGHTS FROM VSG:

The VSG worked from the premise that the security of the Asian rimland from the Persian Gulf to Indochina “is one complete strategical problem.” The security of the Gulf was bound up with the security of the Indian subcontinent which in turn depended on Burma and Indochina. A stable if not united subcontinent formed the fulcrum in the system. Its fragmentation would leave the wings isolated and the balance broken. This view contrasted with a geospatial perspective both natural and understandable for Americans that located the Gulf on the eastern edge of a European-centered system and Burma and Indochina on the western edge of a Pacific-centered system. But by viewing the region from an Indian center, as the VSG did, events along the Asian rimland since 1945 seem unsurprising, the products of a predictable, albeit complex and dynamic, structure.

To give a concrete example, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was, as Olaf Caroe, the VSG’s director put it, the predictable (and predicted) “after-effect” of India’s partition in 1947.

By creating two mutually antagonistic successor states in India and Pakistan, the partition effectively turned the subcontinent’s power potential in on itself. For nearly a century beforehand, power based on a stable subcontinent had provided the indispensable counterpoise to Russia that had allowed the emergence of a viable Afghan state. The fragmentation of the counterpoise on the subcontinent allowed Soviet decision-makers to calculate their interests and options in 1979 very differently than their Russian predecessors had in comparable crises in 1885, 1895, and 1925. It is worth emphasizing that the subcontinent’s stability formed a counterpoise in diplomatic and economic terms as well as military ones. The continued hostility of India and Pakistan in the 1990s thus weighed heavily against the reconstruction of security and stability in Afghanistan. The fact that different elements in the Afghan polity pulled variously toward Pakistan, Iran, and former Soviet states in Central Asia was not so much symptomatic of strength on the part of those countries as it was of the subcontinent’s weakness as a center of gravity. (NOTE: IMPORTANT POINT)

Afghanistan consequently reemerged as the kind of base area and seedbed it had once formed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries for forces of regional instability and terrorism.

Figure one and two review key entities before and after partition for a scenario based on Afghanistan. The <> in the model to define locations, agents, values, and other entities have their definition in the Great Game profile described in the next section. Figure one shows the main agents in that have goals leading them to focus on Afghanistan. Note that none of the players, or <>, hold goals or values that lead them to promote a version of social control in Afghanistan.

In contrast, as shown in Figure two, the Great Game following partition inserts new agents into the game, most importantly Pakistan, split into the unwieldy federation bifurcated by another new agent, India. The United States also appeared on the scene as a great power, but they lacked the focus on the goal of maintaining Indian stability that had animated the British in India.

Pakistan and India had territorial goals that forced competition between them, especially in terms of which princely states the Imperial successors would control, with the Kashmir region still a thorn. Post independence, the Great Game now had actors concerned with the type of social organization in the region, with Pakistan organized as an entity protecting Islamic values of some undetermined form in a social polity. The differences between these two models illustrate Caroe’s emphasis on systemic instability that left the Soviet Union room for maneuver to bring troops in the region.....

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Jun 2014 02:41

Read this in entirety

Caroe's VSG part 3

How the sorcerer's apprentice started to threaten the sorcerer.

And understand where MMS is coming from.

Christopher Sidor · Post by **Christopher Sidor** » 22 Jun 2014 10:29

^^^^
Typical British imperial crap mentality. They are so much fighting the last centuries first half wars. This conflict in Afghanistan is not due to division of India.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 22 Jun 2014 11:42

So MMs did the right thing by not reacting to 26/11?

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 22 Jun 2014 13:30

Russia seeks China & India as partners of emerging energy alliance - Atul Aneja, The Hindu

Russia has signalled that its proposed giant gas pipeline to China could be extended to India, setting the stage for a triangular energy partnership among three core members of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin, who has concluded a visit to India as President Vladimir Putin’s envoy told reporters that the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to India would be “one of the largest infrastructure projects that could be conceived.” His comments follow media reports that during his anticipated meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Brazil during the BRICS summit next month, Mr. Putin may propose the extension of the Russia-China gas pipeline to India.

The move, if it materialises would feed into Russia’s discernable strategic shift towards the East, especially after the Ukrainian crisis, which has sent Moscow’s ties with the Atlantic Alliance in a tailspin. Leveraging its position as a global energy supplier, Russia has already identified China as one of its core partners — its inclination evident in the $ 400 billion gas deal that it has signed with Beijing. Mr. Rogozin told the website Russia and India Report in an interview that his talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, yielded the formation of a Working Group on Strategic Issues that would focus on “strategic projects.”

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 22 Jun 2014 23:01

Report: Polish minister says US ties worthless

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish magazine said Sunday it has obtained recordings of a conversation in which Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says the country's strong alliance with the U.S. "isn't worth anything" and is "even harmful because it creates a false sense of security."

In a short transcript of the conversation, a person identified as Sikorski by the magazine Wprost tells former finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, that Poles naively believe the U.S. bolsters their security. Using vulgar language, the person argues that such beliefs are nonsense, and that the Polish-U.S. alliance alienates the Russians and Germans.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 23 Jun 2014 00:14

More on the Polish lament!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... -worthless
Polish foreign minister says country's alliance with US worthless
According to a transcript of recordings obtained by Wprost, Radislaw Sikorski said 'we gave the US a blow job'

Reuters in Warsaw
theguardian.com, Sunday 22 June 2014
radoslaw sikorski Sikorski has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and has strongly criticised Russian actions in Ukraine this year. Photograph: Olga Maltseva /AFP /Getty

A Polish news magazine said on Sunday it had obtained a secret recording of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, in contention for a senior European Union job, saying that Poland's relationship with the United States was worthless.

The Wprost news magazine said the recording was of a private conversation earlier this year between Sikorski and Jacek Rostowski, a member of parliament with the ruling Civic Platform who until last year was finance minister.

The magazine did not say who recorded the conversation, or how it obtained the recording.

Aides to Sikorski and Rostowski said they had no immediate comment. A government spokeswoman said it was hard to form a view based on a few excerpts of a conversation, but there might be a comment later.

According to a transcript of excerpts of the conversation that was published by Wprost on its Internet site, Sikorski told Rostowski: "You know that the Polish-US alliance isn't worth anything."

"It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security ... Complete bullshit. We'll get in conflict with the Germans, Russians and we'll think that everything is super, because we gave the Americans a blow job. Losers. Complete losers."

According to the transcript, Sikorski described Warsaw's attitude towards the United States using the Polish word "murzynskosc."

That derives from the word "murzyn," which denotes a dark-skinned person and someone who does the work for somebody else, according to the PWN Polish language dictionary.

The remarks were brief excerpts from a longer conversation between the two men, and it was not immediately clear if Sikorski had made comments elsewhere in the conversation that contradicted those excerpts.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month that Sikorski would be a natural candidate for the job of the EU's top diplomat. The role is filled by Catherine Ashton, but may become vacant when a new European Commission is formed.

Asked by Reuters to comment on the transcript of Sikorski's conversation with Rostowski, foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski said: "We do not comment on media speculation ... Possible comments will be published only after the whole magazine is published."

Government spokeswoman Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska said the government was waiting for publication of the full recordings before commenting.

"It's hard to relate to something which is just a few sentences taken out of a conversation. We'll comment probably on Monday or Tuesday after the government's sitting," she said.

An aide in Rostowski's parliamentary office said he would not comment "at least until he familiarizes himself with the whole conversation."

Wprost last week published secret recordings of conversations between two other senior officials, central bank chief Marek Belka and Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz.

According to a transcript, the two men discussed the central bank helping the government with the economy if it is facing election defeat, and ways of applying pressure on a businessman. Both man have said their words were taking out of context and that they did not break the law.

The recordings prompted calls from the opposition for the government to step down. A raid by prosecutors on the premises of Wprost magazine to try to seize as yet-unpublished tapes prompted protests over media freedoms.

Tusk said last week that calling an early election was an option if no other way could be found out of the crisis.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 27 Jun 2014 02:53

Philip wrote:Ramana,most interestingly,the EU is based upon the agreement signed decades ago when the ECM was given birth ,called the "Treaty of Rome".
No guesses as to the motives of the founders,to create a20th century neo-Roman Empire,more accurately ,another "Holy Roman Empire",comprising both Catholic and Protestant countries.Gradually power in degrees was transferred to Brussels from the parliaments of the member states.A common currency was introduced,the Zero...oops! Euro,Financial control was thus transferred to the banks who came under the governance of the ECB (European Central Bank) .

However,national characteristics and interests prevailed over the diktat of the Euro high command,the EU parliament,a much watered down version of the Roman Senate. The actual power lay with those who held the financial reins and the hardworking Germans rose rapidly to the top,eclipsing the rest. Monarchist Britain reluctant to dissolve in the flux of EU integration,with one eye always open to the US,relishing its "special relationship" and the "5 eyes" clique of Anglo-Saxon nations,have retained the pound,thus weakening the financial edifice further,already groaning under the weight of debts from non-productive EU members. When the "Centre" is weak and fails,the bonds uniting the ethnic constituents loosen and nationalism is resurgent.

The Euro edifice is now in danger of crumbling,at the very least financial collapse.Some have even called for a category of 1st,2nd and turd class EU currencies to save the situ and the richer members,fed up of propping up the poorer and lazier ones.The E-Peons are also in thrall to Russia for energy requirements and in no shape to counter Putin and Russia militarily.Putin just has to apply the pressure relentlessly and watch the fruit fall off the branch on its own,just like the Crimea,whose historic vote is going to snowball,first with more eastern regions of Ukraine seceding and then EU entities following suit. Europe is living in "interesting times",as the watching gleeful Chinese say!

Euro is not collapsing at all. Its a transition currency after collapse of the Dollar. That is the reason for its creation. Nothing more. nothing less.

Yes its a combination of protestant-catholic countries. However, they have made Sharia banking compulsory within Eurozone. And that was to bring Saudi barbaria into its axis. They initially tried to bring in Russia but American policy in Ukraine has alienated Russia.

The Anglo-Saxon bloc is truly lost. They have no answer to this. 600 year dominance of the world financial system and after that nothing. This has what it has come to.

BTW many countries want to join Euro. Even Greece does not want to leave. A hard life with strong Euro is better than a chaos due to perpetually declining drachma is better. Ask any Greek if you meet them, what will they take.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 27 Jun 2014 07:41

Read the book
Theory is History
by
Samir Amin

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 29 Jun 2014 02:16

Northern Spy Lifts Cloak on Koreas’ Deadly Rivalry

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 02 Jul 2014 12:08

http://temi.repubblica.it/limes-heartla ... g-game/885

Heartland Geopolitical Maps
The New Big Game

map by Laura Canali
Military, political, economic and demographic frictions on the Asian chessboard: Beijing and Delhi’s respective alliances with neighboring countries, main territorial disputes, location and weight of the Indian and Chinese diasporas, the US military ring encompassing the Indian Ocean region.
Check the map

Uncle has a ring around Asia

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 03 Jul 2014 21:23

Good site to get informed.
Thanks,
ramana

habal · Post by **habal** » 04 Jul 2014 17:13

svinayak wrote:
Uncle has a ring around Asia

& all the time our fools were trying to convince us about the *Chinese string of pearls*.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 05 Jul 2014 01:45

habal wrote:
Uncle has a ring around Asia

& all the time our fools were trying to convince us about the *Chinese string of pearls*.

India needs a strategy so that it can break away from all rings.
The strategy needs a combination of alliances and Indian expansion

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 05 Jul 2014 23:22

Kaplan says the sea routes are like a freeway in the IOR to NE Asia. They may not care so much about the landroutes to the west of India as the sea lanes.

That is why they are ramping up the navy and not so worried about Afghanistan after the the withdrawal.