Saturday, April 30, 2016

Peter Lee — The Price of the Pivot: Scarborough Shoal

The PRC is in a pretty solid position, legality-wise in occupying Scarborough Shoal.
And that means it’s pretty much free to build on it. Even island-build it.
The United States and the Philippines know that.
Losing Scarborough Shoal was the price of the pivot.
It’s just hard to admit it.
Just like losing Crimea was the price of the coup in Ukraine.

And the rise of "radical Islam" was the price of inserting the "freedom fighters" into Afghanistan to counter Russia.

Tradeoffs. Zbig still believe that the tradeoff that created "radical Islam" was worth it.

"Geopolitical economy." I wonder if anyone has modeled it economically. The numbers are huge and growing.

The Unz Review
The Price of the Pivot: Scarborough Shoal
Peter Lee

See also at Unz Review

Trump’s America First Policy: Remarkably Sophisticated
Ilana Mercer

Trump Has A Sound Trade Policy, But Where Will He Get Sound Trade Policy Aides?
Eamonn Fingleton

2 comments:

Malmo's Ghost said...

I like Mercer--a lot!

Peter Pan said...

Are we supposed to care about some petty territorial dispute?

Even the US and Canada have their own spats:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machias_Seal_Island