America, the fragile empire – latimes.com

Posted by Matt in February 28th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Niall Ferguson, Armageddon, Central And Eastern Europe, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, empire, Hindsight, Historian, Historians, Imperium, Lenin, Less Than Five Years, Mikhail Gorbachev, Oil Prices, Political Scientist, Precipitous Decline, Soviet Nuclear Arsenal, Soviet System, Soviets, Stephen Kotkin, Stockpile, Third World

The most recent and familiar example of precipitous decline is the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the benefit of hindsight, historians have traced all kinds of rot within the Soviet system back to the Brezhnev era and beyond. Perhaps, as the historian and political scientist Stephen Kotkin has argued, it was only the high [...]

New Russian Stealth Fighter Makes First Flight – NYTimes.com

Posted by Matt in January 29th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Russia, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Disarray, Fifth Generation, Fighter Aircraft, First Flight, Nytimes, Poverty, Russia, Stealth Fighter, Sukhoi, Technical Superiority, United States, Warplane, weapons

Russia test-flew a long-awaited new fighter aircraft on Friday, determined to challenge the United States for technical superiority in the skies and impress weapons buyers.
The “fifth-generation” stealth fighter — Russia’s first all-new warplane since the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged the defense industry into poverty and disarray — flew for 47 minutes, planemaker Sukhoi [...]

Lessons of Georgia – Telegraph

Posted by Matt in August 11th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, 20th Century, Bluster, Catastrophe, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Countries, Foray, Land Of Lost Content, Political Appeal, Russia, Russian Prime Minister, Soviet Empire, tanks, Telegraph, Vladimir Putin, Wake Up Call, West Georgia

When Vladimir Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, his remarks were seen as part and parcel of the nationalist bluster that is an integral part of his domestic political appeal. When, one year ago, the Russian prime minister sent his tanks into Georgia, he [...]

The Perilous Future of U.S. Strategic Forces

Posted by Matt in May 3rd, 2009 | no comment

Published in Nuclear, U.S., Ahead, Big Trouble, Cold-War, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Consequences, Curious Position, Decades, Decline, Doubts, Drastic Reductions, Encapsulated, Exhaustion, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Icbm, International Politics, Military Power, minuteman, Missions, New Nuclear Warhead, Nuclear Forces, Nuclear Infrastructure, Peacekeeper, Retirements, United States

This is a stunning report about the state of our nuclear forces. The United States is in big trouble as our nuclear forces are literally falling apart due to old age.
From the article:
Today, the United States finds itself in a curious position in international politics. While its conventional military power remains unparalleled, its once-formidable strategic [...]

Naïveté Invites Aggression

Posted by Matt in April 8th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Military, U.S., Aggression, Armaments, Arms Control, Article Points, Biological Weapons, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Dangerous Illusion, Defense Posture, Democratic Nation, Nuclear Arsenal, Nuclear Warheads, Nuclear Weapons, Obama, Outlaw, Persistence, Posture, Ronald Regan, Russians, World War I, Wsj

The article points out how historically arms control actually had the opposite effect intended. Arms control helped facilitate World War I & II. It caused the Soviet Union to secretly ramp up production of banned biological weapons.
It wasn’t arms control that facilitated the collapse of the Soviet Union. The tough defense posture by Ronald Regan [...]

Europe and America in the shadows as a new era dawns

Posted by Matt in October 25th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Uncategorized, Array, Centuries, Cold-War, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Economic Domination, Emperor Augustus, Europe And America, Europeans, Global Economy, New Era, Roman Empire, superpower, Truth, Unique Power, United States, Watershed, World History

‘The United States is not just a superpower. It is a super-dooper power,” I was told shortly after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was considerable truth in this claim. Never since the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Augustus 2,000 years ago, had one state appeared so [...]

The Realist Resurgence

Posted by Matt in October 11th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Military, Russia, Aircraft Carriers, Alexander, Ballistic Missile, Cold-War, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Conventional Force, Conventional Forces, Defensenews, Eurasia Group, Fleet, Kliment, moscow, Northern Fleet, Nuclear Warheads, Nuclear Weapons, Paper Tiger, Power Strategy, Realist, Respects, Resurgence, Ria Novosti Russia, Russian Military, Russian News Agency, Russian President, Russians, Sean Mccormack, Strategic Nuclear Forces, Tiger, United Press International, Washington Post

Russia is weaker than it looks, which is why NATO’s soft-power strategy can still prevail.
…
That was the point Sean McCormack was making about Russia’s rickety fleet. Moscow is not the threat that it wants to appear. With more than 5,000 nuclear warheads and its status as the world’s largest energy exporter, it cannot really be [...]

Russia challenges west with nuclear overhaul

Posted by Matt in October 6th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Nuclear, Russia, U.S., War, West, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Defence Analyst, guardian, moscow, NATO, Nuclear Overhaul, Nuclear War, Pavel Felgenhauer, Russia, Russian Leadership, Russian Military

“This is very significant. Right now the present Russian leadership believes that a war with Nato is very much possible,” Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based defence analyst, told the Guardian. “This is the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that the Russian military is actually preparing for an all-out nuclear war with America.”
Read [...]

McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld

Posted by Matt in June 9th, 2008 | 2 comments

Published in Crime, general, Chinese Labor, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Colombian Drug Cartels, Criminal Underworld, Cybercrime, Fall Of The Berlin Wall, Famous Mobsters, Global Crime, Global Gdp, Hodgepodge, Illegal Trade, Insatiable Demand, International Financial Markets, Misha Glenny, Nuclear Material, Open Markets, Organized Crime, Russian Mafia, Service Markets, Tom Friedman, Tom Nissley, Trade Accounts, World, World Organized Crime

In McMafia, Misha Glenny draws the dark map that lies on the other side of Tom Friedman’s bright flat world. That connected globe not only brings software coders and supply-chain outsourcers closer together; it’s also opened the gates to a criminal network of unsettling vastness, complexity, and efficiency that represents a fifth of the earth’s [...]