What is the purpose of NATO? Western European countries can’t get out of their rocking chair long enough to be of much use to anybody, let alone themselves. Interestingly, the one place they get a spine is in their anti-Americanism.
I wonder if the people in Western Europe are just plain nuts, and how long do [...]

read more....

Does the United States really need Russia? According to many pundits, we need Russia more than it needs us. Russia could cause a lot of problems if we’re not careful.
I say bunk to that nonsense. It’s time to throw down the gauntlet. If Russia is going to terrorize its neighbors and exercise strategic unhelpfulness on [...]

read more....

By George Friedman

To understand Iran, you must begin by understanding how large it is. Iran is the 17th largest country in world. It measures 1,684,000 square kilometers. That means that its territory is larger than the combined territories of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal - Western Europe. Iran is the 16th most [...]

read more....

In recent years, Moscow started to think that it could most easily express its dissatisfaction with Western politics by resorting to old Cold war cliches. The Kremlin does not like that Ukraine and Georgia want to join NATO, therefore it claimed that Western military bases will inevitably be built in those countries and that they [...]

read more....

A 2,000-mile pipeline envisioned as a way to lessen Western Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas is being threatened by escalating costs, missed deadlines and uncertain supply.
The project, known as Nabucco, is behind schedule, with a start date expected to be pushed back from next year to 2010. Recent reports indicate that the cost of [...]

read more....

According to Gen. Michael Moseley, who was recently dismissed from his position as U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, “there is almost zero chance we will fight a nation state” in the 21st century.
While senior American flag officers acknowledge the increasing unlikelihood of great power war in the 21st century, a handful of U.S. think [...]

read more....

The growing thirst for oil in China and India is well known. However, this global surge in demand is being led by oil producers that are emerging as significant consumers, too, undermining their capacity to export when global supplies are tightening.
“Consumption is cannibalising their export capacity,” Jeff Rubin, an oil analyst for CIBC World Markets [...]

read more....

The population of western Europe is aging steadily, and the region’s birthrate is well below the replacement level, but Europe’s elderly are exceptionally healthy. That means they could be more productive for longer than their predecessors were. If western European governments learn to tap this potential, healthy aging could become the region’s next great economic [...]

read more....

Russia’s brutally high levels of mortality, along with anemic fertility levels, fashion a second “exceptional” demographic trend for the country: depopulation. In the 16-plus years since the end of the U.S.S.R., Russia has recorded over 12 million more deaths than births. Net immigration has only partially compensated for this deficit. Consequently, Russia’s population dropped from [...]

read more....