To some, China’s muscular domination of the Olympic medal table is a powerful allegory of the shifting balance of global power. A far better and more literal testimony to the collapse of the West may be seen in the distinctly weak-kneed response to Russian aggression in Georgia by what is still amusingly called the transatlantic [...]

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Wealth and innovation are bubbling up in the most unexpected places. The tallest buildings, the biggest dams, the highest grossing movies, some of the most advanced technologies: they’re all being created outside of the United States. It’s called “the rise of the rest”, and as global power shifts, Washington will face its greatest challenge: it’ll [...]

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In itself, Iran’s recent application for membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is probably little more than diplomatic posturing. But coupled with the end of Lebanon’s political stalemate, Turkey’s mediation between Israel and Syria, and Egypt’s attempts to broker a truce in Gaza, it can be seen as part of a new dynamic that [...]

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If there was a the unipolar moment it has passed. The US will most likely remain the pre-eminent global power for some time yet, but it is already an insufficient one. The multilateral system designed in the middle of the last century no longer fits geopolitical realities. New powers might be accommodated in a reformed [...]

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Russia and the United States have the world’s largest nuclear arsenals. Both countries have powerful armies, fleets and air forces. The same can be said for China, as well, which stands as the world’s third most powerful country. The three countries are large, in land area and population. Together they possess a quarter of the [...]

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By George Friedman
For the past year, Stratfor has been focusing on what we see as the critical global geopolitical picture. As the U.S.-jihadist war has developed, it has absorbed American military resources dramatically. It is overstated to say that the United States lacks the capacity to intervene anywhere else in the world, but it is [...]

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