Aby The Liberal

Dmitri October 8th, 2007

The Kosovo Conflict of the mid-1990s and the expansion of NATO on Eastern Europe (former Russian ‘Sphere of Influence’) acted as a political and military alarm bell for Russia. The collapse of the Soviet Union led many western pro-democracy political analysts to believe that Russia would be on a prosperity path to be a global economic might. But their analyses went horribly wrong and post-Soviet Russian economy went downhill, along with its political and military influence. It was very much like Berlin in latter days of Weimar Republic, living in past glory with a bleak present and a dark future. The failure of western economic model on Russia gave rise to skepticism on whether one could count Russia any more as a superpower provided its large nuclear force was ignored.

A BBC News video on recent Russian bomber patrols over British airspace - a symbolism of Cold War power projection

Things started looking up after Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999. With strategic experience of an ex-KGB agent and diplomatic experience of an internationalist, Putin pulled Russian economy back from the post-Cold War downfall. Doomsday sayers who predicted a ‘Latin America’ situation for Russia were dissappointed after the energy and infrastructure boom put Russian on track with other global economic powers. Vladimir Putin became a hero of the Russian people by restoring their national pride (which was as weak as its economy due to several political failures). Putin also scored political and diplomatic brownie points for Russia by strengthening ties with West Asia and improving relationships with non Anglo-Saxon Western Europe.

Despite the political and economic restructuring of Russia in the early 21st century, European political analysts were slow and reluctant to acknowledge the reality of Russia’s resurgence. However the stupour dissappeared once Russia made a few critical political and military moves to assert its power projection in Europe. These moves included a tougher political stance on Kosovo issue, opposition to US missile shield in Poland, revival of nuclear strategic missile development, political manipulation of Europe by controlling gas supplies, revival of bomber missions, taking a pro-Iran political stance, Arctic missions with territorial claims, revived patrols of nuclear submarines in the Pacific and finally the testing of the largest non-nuclear bomb on September 11, 2007.

The economic resurgence and revival of power games has already created flutters in global politics, with speculations that the Cold War is not yet over. While the rest of the world looks at Russia as a counterforce against US to create a multipolar world, Europe sees Russia as a threat to its political stability. A strong and more powerful Russia will have a power projection in Europe which will be more effective that the weakening United States’ influence among European Union nations. Considering the nuclear deterrance of UK and France, a war between Russia and EU is highly unlikely quite sometime into the future. The worst that Europe is going to face in the light of Russia growing political and military assertiveness is a few changes in EU foreign policy to accomodate Russian interests in addition to their own.

• World Politics , Internationalism , Russia
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Dmitri October 4th, 2007

If someone made a suggestion that Americans are violent by nature, they would of course be met with strong moral outrage, mostly from Americans. It might not considered politically correct in the Anglo-Saxon world to suggest that Americans are violent, yet political correctness can hardly cover the fact that the United States  is one of the most violent nations on earth, both by crime rates and by ideological glorification of violent pursuits. In this short piece, we will discuss in brief, the various social and political factors that are characteristic of violence in the United States, along with a brief overview of the facts and figures of violent crimes in United States. If you have any objection, agreement or argument against this article, feel free to use the comment form below.

A sarcastic cartoon by joyoftech.com on how Americans are more comfortable with violence than sexuality.

The United States has by far the largest number of people behind bars for violent crimes and one of the highest homicide rates in the world. According to the America’s FBI Crime in the United States 2005 data, violent crime rate in US was 469.2 per 100000 population as of the year 2005, the highest among industrialised countries. It must be noted that the American definition of violent crimes consitutes a smaller spectrum of crimes than European and Asian countries. The overall homicide and violent crime of US is comparable to that of disturbed East European and South-East Asian regions. Contrary to popular American arguments, 45.9% of the crimes between 1974 and 2004 are committed by whites, blacks make up a 52.1% and other races about 2%. The extent of crime in US can be best understood when it stands in a comparison with the rest of the world. The United States has less than 5% of world’s population and over 25% of the world’s population with criminal records.

There are several social and political factors which cause this crimes. One of them as explained above, is the inherent inclination of Americans towards violence. As is shown the the sarcastic cartoon above, most Americans would rather have their children watch a scene containing blood-lust and gore rather than a scene of intimacy or nudity. A human being with a slit throat or blood pouring out of its body is more acceptable than a human, hale and hearty but naked. Glorification of violence and war, are all covered by religious fundamentalist goups and very popular in the media. It is then no surprise that violence finds more social acceptability than love in United States. A point of note is that most American swearwords have a sexual theme, while a word ‘fucker’ is an insult, if one calls someone a ‘killer’ in America, it is a matter of pride.

Another cause of violence in America could be the large ownership of guns in America. Coupled with impusive behaviour and social acceptability of walking around with firearms, it is not surprise the a large proportion of violent crimes in America is because of guns. Guns in America is more acceptable and normal on kids than cellphones, many US states have laws that allow school kids to carry concealed handguns. There is also in incident where US authorities issued a gun on a 10 month old infant in Illonis state, admittedly the state with the strictest gun controls. If it were the 1700s and early 1800s, it would have been acceptable for an American to carry a gun to protect himself/herself from wild animals and predators, in today’s America it hardly makes sense. Issuing guns on 10-month old infants and untrained schoolkids is insanity, it is no surprise then that incidents in the likes of Columbine High School massacre and Virginia Tech massacre are exclusive to United States. The issue of gun control and gun related violence is so wide that it deserves an entire post on it for adequate justice.

The love of guns, social acceptability of violence and degradation of compassionate emotions, all point to the trait of Americans - they are inherently attracted to violence. Although there are people among Americans who are compassionate and kind-hearted, yet they have little voice in politics and society - one of the primary reasons for endless wars, genocides and mass violence in the annals of American history. One might ask - what has the issue of violent nature of Americans got to do with international politics? Well, one has to look at the way Americans attempt to push their way of life down the throat of third world denizens, with violent force and by portraying it as the only way of life worth living.

• Crimes , America , Sarcasm
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