Category Archives: New Cold Wars

Empire, Europe, Germany, NATO, New Cold Wars, Putin, Ukraine, War Notes

Germany voted to rearm—Did the Earth Move? Gwynne Dyer Says Yes

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Keeping the ‘Rule of Law’ Alive
/ Politics / By Gwynne Dyer
19 March 2025

Last Tuesday [March 18 2025)] there was a vote in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, that may have changed the course of history. When the vote came out ‘Yes’, you could feel the tectonic plates shift. Germany has voted to rearm.

In an ideal world, disarming would have been the better choice, but we are not in that world. The United States has changed sides and Donald Trump is about to deliver a besieged Ukraine that he has deliberately starved of weapons into the hands of his good friend, the invader Vladimir Putin.

The Bundestag’s decision was not just about Ukraine. It is about the ‘rule of law’, which can be summed up in one sentence: henceforward, no country shall expand its border by force. Borders may be ‘unfair’ and they are almost always the result of past violence, but you must live within them in peace forever (unless you can negotiate voluntary changes).

What kind of fools would try to impose such an extreme and idealistic rule on the world?

Continue reading Germany voted to rearm—Did the Earth Move? Gwynne Dyer Says Yes →

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A Shadow on the Daffodils: Preaching from the Big Book of Nobody

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Daffs, going wild again.

 

This past First Day (Quaker talk for Sunday) I Zoomed into worship in my Friends meeting, the one out in the farmland of Flyover County, North By-God Carolina, where I missed one of my favorite annual scenes there: the appearance in the back 40 of a big unruly spread of wild daffodils. But I did hear a stirring message.

No one among the elders knows when or by whom the daffodils came. Their location, out behind the community building we fondly call The Hut, isn’t visible from the road, so passersby mostly miss the spread, too bad for them. Continue reading A Shadow on the Daffodils: Preaching from the Big Book of Nobody →

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A Long Read to Ponder: Biden in Vietnam & at the UN: Who Could Have Imagined?

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An image from Vietnamese TV news, during Biden’s visit.

NOTE: Friends, this material just blows my mind.

Yes, that’s an outdated 1960s expression, but it fits here: this material is about the Vietnam War. And for me (plus, I figure, most of the remaining survivors of that era of national agony), having our minds blown was a thing.

Maybe initially it was fun, or mind-expanding. But for me, and for many, it happened too often back then, and it didn’t always mean by taking drugs. I didn’t do much of that, but had mind-blown fatigue anyway. Continue reading A Long Read to Ponder: Biden in Vietnam & at the UN: Who Could Have Imagined? →

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U. S. & China are new Competitors in an old, obscure, but important island dispute

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A tug of war between China and America in the Indian Ocean

Saltwire: Atlantic Canada News Service — Sept. 6, 2023

The Chagos islands, with Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean

Most of the international community regards the Chagos Islands as belonging to Mauritius, from which they were detached in 1965.
Henry Srebrnik, a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island, provided the following opinion article.

Is the sun about to set on Britain’s control of the Chagos Islands? This archipelago of around 60 islands can be found halfway between East Africa and Southeast Asia. They are over 1,500 kilometres south of India, and even further from Mauritius, from which they were detached in 1965.

The Chagos group is currently governed by London as the British Indian Ocean Territory, but most of the international community regards it as belonging to Mauritius.

Also at stake is the future of the indigenous population, the Chagossians, who were expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s. For decades, Britain has blocked them from returning to their islands. For what reason? And why has this become the centre of a power struggle between the United States and China?

Unlawful occupation Continue reading U. S. & China are new Competitors in an old, obscure, but important island dispute →

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Kristalina Georgieva: Can She Stop A New Cold War??

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IMF chief cites her life behind Iron Curtain in warning Against a new Cold War

The Washington Post

By David J. Lynch
 — August 20, 2023

Kristalina Georgieva is head of the International Monetary Fund and is trying to keep the global economy from a costly splintering

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, grew up under communism and understands the costs of a globe partitioned between adversarial powers.

She grew up in a time of scarcity and repression, living on the wrong side of the line that divided two superpowers. Now she fears a new era of rival blocs could lead the world to repeat the errors of the Cold War.

Continue reading Kristalina Georgieva: Can She Stop A New Cold War?? →