Political Geography and Geopolitics

Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and the downsizing of national monuments such as Bears Ears lead by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. A number of highly contentious debates and sensationalized events have again focused attention on land held in the public domain by the United States. This essay argues that federal land policy as a form of colonial administration has been constitutive for the logic of expectation as property in what is now the United States. From the state land cessions negotiated on behalf of the Articles of Confederation to the preemption acts (1830–1841) to the homestead acts (1862–1916) to present-day demands for land transfer, the acquisition and disposal of the so-called public domain have been central to westward colonization, the consolidation of the nation-state, and the promise of land ownership as the ostensible foundation of individual liberty. These dynamics are evident in contemporary conflicts over public lands and arguments for the transfer of public lands to either state or private ownership. Approaching the Bundy occupations as flashpoints that illuminate competing interpretations and claims to land within the history of westward colonization, this essay seeks to demonstrate the ways in which expectation emerges from particular economies of dispossession of indigenous peoples that have historically worked through and across the division of public and private property.

A comprehensive political and design theory of planetary-scale computation proposing that The Stack—an accidental megastructure—is both a technological apparatus and a model for a new geopolitical architecture.
What has planetary-scale computation done to our geopolitical realities? It takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing systems; from interfaces drawn by the augmentation of the hand and eye to users identified by self—quantification and the arrival of legions of sensors, algorithms, and robots. Together, how do these distort and deform modern political geographies and produce new territories in their own image?

In The Stack, Benjamin Bratton proposes that these different genres of computation—smart grids, cloud platforms, mobile apps, smart cities, the Internet of Things, automation—can be seen not as so many species evolving on their own, but as forming a coherent whole: an accidental megastructure called The Stack that is both a computational apparatus and a new governing architecture. We are inside The Stack and it is inside of us.

In an account that is both theoretical and technical, drawing on political philosophy, architectural theory, and software studies, Bratton explores six layers of The Stack: Earth, Cloud, City, Address, Interface, User. Each is mapped on its own terms and understood as a component within the larger whole built from hard and soft systems intermingling—not only computational forms but also social, human, and physical forces. This model, informed by the logic of the multilayered structure of protocol “stacks,” in which network technologies operate within a modular and vertical order, offers a comprehensive image of our emerging infrastructure and a platform for its ongoing reinvention.

The Stack is an interdisciplinary design brief for a new geopolitics that works with and for planetary-scale computation. Interweaving the continental, urban, and perceptual scales, it shows how we can better build, dwell within, communicate with, and govern our worlds.

This paper will discuss the political and legal aspects of the maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the factors relevant to their conciliation. The first part of the paper introduces the Mediterranean Sea and the relevance of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) regime in its basins. Subsequently, the author summarizes relevant historical cleavages in the Levant Basin, with a focus on relevant modern Lebanese-Israeli, Lebanese-Syrian and inter-Cypriot events. Part III will discuss the increasing interest in EEZ delimitation over the past decade due to hydrocarbon prospects in the Eastern Mediterranean and the geopolitical and maritime challenges that have since taken shape. Finally, based on the Law of the Sea and previous examples from around the world, the author discusses relevant legal avenues for achieving balanced solutions to maritime tensions in the region and presents the most relevant criteria in delimiting maritime boundaries.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

Over the past two decades capitalism and globalization have gradually changed skin. Both have undergone an acceleration that has radically changed their nature and their rules, resulting in a new scenario of the economic geography at the global and the local scale. The crisis started in 2007, first financial and then economic, has inserted in the context of these changes, even producing the emergence of new actors on the international scene and the relative decline of the traditional areas of development. This scenario is the product of a complex web of ideas, actors, networks, technologies and agreements that the volume attempts to analyze in the most significant components.

Political geography traditionally focused on state, but there has been a broadening of what counts as ‘doing politics’ that includes the work of social movements. Much of this work though uses analytical categories other than social movement, and these are reviewed and included here. Geographers have brought space into thinking about social movements, analyzing how various spatialities shape and are shaped by movements, the spatialities of solidarity, and the geographies of emotion used and generated by movements. Many do this work as academic-activists and collaborate with movements. Across different methods, approaches, and languages, geographers have contributed to building the power of movements to make a better world.

Among the deficiencies demonstrated by the world financial crisis of 2008–9, one was the limited capacity of G-8 to provide for global economic governance. The developed economies quickly realised that they should seek joint solutions and coordinated policies in cooperation with the leading emerging-market economies. As a result, the G-20 turned into the main forum for managing the crisis. This in fact pointed to an early institutional acknowledgement that important changes were underway in the global distribution of power. These changes derive from the substantially higher growth rates of the emerging-market economies in comparison with those of the developed economies, a trend named ‘the rise of the rest’ (Zakaria, 2008, pp. 2–3).

The evolution of Caspian Sea basin energy transmission networks is entering a crucial phase. Azerbaijan is the crucible where questions concerning the future structure of geo-economic relations in Eurasia (and also therefore crucial aspects of the general geopolitical structure of world politics) are today being resolved. Azerbaijan’s significance arises both from the volume of its natural energy resources and from its irreplaceable role as a bridge from Central Asia and the Caspian Sea basin to the Black Sea basin and Europe. Most recently, this significance has only been underlined by the implementation of a multi-vectored energy export strategy. Long-term and short-term historical perspectives put into relief the significance of the expanding geo-economic energy relations between Greater Central Asia and Greater Southwest Asia.

In light of the recent passing of the neoliberal geostrategic tactician, Zbigniew Brzezinski, I felt it was time to revisit his 1997 text "Grand Chessboard". Within this book, US Foreign policy objectives were so succinctly explained as the geopolitical landscape moved so turbulently into the beginning decades of the 21st Century.

Despite his vision of American foreign policy as "benign and visionary", the tone of Brzezinski's text is concerned with preserving U.S hegemony as the world's "first truly global superpower".  He saw Eurasia as the "Grand Chessboard" on which this struggle to maintain "continental equilibrium" was to be played out on the road to establishing global governance.

"The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power. ... 

... it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America."

The insertion of American idealism into the politics of the Eurasian landmass first occurred with The U.S entry into the First World War, and continued after the Second World War with the ideological struggle with the Soviets during the Cold War. The fate of the continental landmass became dominated by the power struggle between the two major superpowers. 

The struggle was between a great sea power (the U.S) and a great land power (the U.S.S.R), but the decisive area of dispute took place in a central Asian country that still has vital strategic importance on the world stage. ...

Find Out More:
http://www.whenthenewsstops.org/2017/06/the-grand-chessboard-american-primacy.html

South China Sea has been an “apple of discord” between the US and China in international affairs for decades. Not only the US-China rivalry but also regional countries have been motivated to involve in the territory as it’s one of the lucrative territories in both geopolitical and strategic dynamics. People who are interested in international affairs and geopolitics must stay with the news over South China Sea. Now, it has become a global issue even small countries are involving vis-à-vis position. The philippine already has gone to the Permanent Court of Arbitration against China and the court verdict on the favor of its claim. Thus, it is said that the South China Sea could be the battleground of World War III. To understand the statement we have to have a particular knowledge over the issue and have to look over the geopolitical and strategic importance of South China Sea.

– The article is a response to Matoušek's mistreatment of my previous article. I highlight his key misinterpretations of my text and the most striking cases of logical incoherence. Three issues are elaborated upon: (i) the problems with combining epistemologi-cal positions, (ii) the role of methodological inspiration, and (iii) the significance of theory testing for the health of the discipline. The main conclusion is that Matoušek's alternative would be far more exclusive than it pretends to be. In fact, seen from the perspective of the discipline as a whole, my conflictual multi-polar alternative is much more benevolent than the so-called inclusive alternative. KEY WORDS: geography – epistemology – standards – misinterpretation Když jsem před více jak rokem psal příspěvek do informací ČGS (Kofroň 2012a), doufal jsem, že bude čten, diskutován a napadán, a že tak poskytne platformu pro kritické zamyšlení se nad stavem geografie. Proto vítám Matouš-kovu (2013) nesouhlasnou reakci. Domnívám se však, že jeho textem prostupují argumentační protimluvy a misinterpretace mého článku. Níže reaguji na tři nejproblematičtější části textu, které, jak doufám, nesou širší význam a jejichž diskuze může vyjasnit problematiku a případně podnítit další debatu. Jedná se o: (i) Možnost kombinovat epistemologické přístupy ve výzkumu. Jelikož nebylo řečeno, jak tyto kombinace provádět, ukáži, proč to (tak jednoduše) nejde. (ii) Význam metodologie. Jsem přesvědčen, že Matoušek jednak dezin-terpretoval můj text, především však jeho pozici považuji za vnitřně nekohe-rentní. (iii) Otázku teorií, jejich hodnocení a standardů pro geografii. Chce-li někdo opustit testování teorií, měl by jasně říci, jakou alternativu nabízí a jaké následky z toho plynou. 1. Epistemologie kombinovatelné, aneb dva falešné sny o inkluzi Oponent nabízí lákavou představu inkluzivní geografie kombinující a synteti-zující různé epistemologické a metodologické přístupy. Obávám se však, že tato idylická vize obsahuje přinejmenším dva problémy: (i) Povede k zániku jakých-koliv standardů vědecké práce a (ii) přináší zárodky epistemologické hegemonie. Než přistoupím k argumentaci, musím zdůraznit, že je zavádějící podsouvat mi odmítnutí epistemologické syntézy/kombinace. Napsal jsem sice, že: " Každý by si měl být jistý, zda patří k těm, kteří chtějí dělat sociální vědu jako analogii přírodních věd (…), či k těm, kteří hledají inspiraci spíše v reflektivistických přístupech… " (Kofroň 2012a, s. 8), ale následující věta říkala, že: " Kombinace zde nejsou provždy zakázané, ale mělo by vždy být jasně řečeno, proč je taková kombinace přínosná, a případně jaká má úskalí " (tamtéž). Tuto větu Matoušek přehlédnul, a tak se místy střetával s fiktivním protivníkem. Netvrdil jsem, že promyšlená a precizně vyargumentovaná kombinace je nutně špatná, nýbrž že nahodilé míšení vytváří více problémů, než jich na první pohled řeší.

O texto discute as imagens que derivam e podem ser projetadas sobre as cidades situadas na fronteira entre o Brasil e o Uruguai, relativizadas a partir dos conceitos de punctum e studium e da teoria situada. Essas imagens representam os trânsitos fronteiriços ora como uma indicação de costumes tradicionais, integração e paz, ora como um problema de segurança nacional e pública a ser controlado através da instalação de câmeras de videomonitoramento. Em 2013, uma portaria do Ministério da Justiça do Brasil habilita processos de instalação de câmeras de videomonitoramento no âmbito da Estratégia Nacional de Fronteiras. Através de trabalhos de campo, revisão de bibliografia e do acompanhamento das normativas, conclui-se que a violência presente na fronteira gaúcha, ligada a situações domésticas e familiares, não pode ser diminuída apenas com a instalação de câmeras. Assim, a imagem da violência produzida pelas câmeras não corresponde à verdade da violência nessas cidades de fronteira e amplia a estigmatização da região.

Монография «Россия, Китай и новый мировой порядок» многоаспектна; в ней поставлены
важные научные проблемы, требующие дальнейшей разработки, отдельные выводы носят
характер вполне законченных рекомендаций для органов управления; но одновременно она
имеет просветительский и учебный характер. Актуальность издания и доступность языка,
несомненно, привлечет внимание читателей, интересующихся международной политикой
и отношениями между Россией и Китаем. Исходя из собственного преподавательского опыта,
считаем также эту книгу полезным пособием для студентов и магистрантов, осваивающих
специальности востоковедов, политологов, специалистов по международным отношениям.
Поэтому в качестве заключительного пожелания предлагаем подумать о размещении текста
на доступном сайте, поскольку тираж в 500 экз., вполне солидный по нынешним временам
для научного издания, совершенно недостаточен для учебного пособия.

Zusammenfassung: Die englischen Territorialansprüche des 17. Jahrhunderts waren vergessen und das arktische Spitzbergen war abermals ein Niemands-land, als zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts Steinkohle seinen Weg vom Archipel zum norwegischen Festland fand. Ein internationaler " Kohlerausch " brach aus, an dem neben Briten auch Norweger, Amerikaner, Russen, Niederländer und Schweden beteiligt waren. Anhand von vier britischen Bergbau-und Explorationsunternehmen wird erläutert, wie das bisher periphere Spitzber-gen zunehmend an wirtschaftlicher und politischer Bedeutung gewann. In diesem Prozess spielten die britischen Territorialansprüche, die zu ihrer Blüte-zeit mehr als ein Fünftel des Archipels umfassten, eine ausschlaggebende Rolle, obgleich Spitzbergen ab 1925 zu Norwegen gehörte. Die historischen Einzelheiten werden derzeit von ungenauen Darstellungen überschattet. Hier-durch sind die Parallelen zum heutigen " Arktisrausch " nur schwer erkennbar, obwohl diese allen Beteiligten eine Lehre sein sollten.

Abstract: The English territorial claims of the seventeenth century were forgotten, and Arctic Spitsbergen was yet again a no man's land, when coal found its way from the archipelago to the Norwegian mainland at the beginning of the twentieth century. An international " coal rush " broke out, which in addition to the British also involved Norwegians, Americans, Russians, Dutch, and Swedes. Based on four British mining and exploration companies, this paper explains how the previously peripheral Spitsbergen gained increasing economic and political importance. In this process, the British territorial claims, which in their heyday comprised a fifth of the landmass, played a decisive role, although Spitsbergen belonged to Norway after 1925. The historical details are currently overpowered by inaccurate representations. As a result, the parallels to today's " Arctic rush " are difficult to recognize, although these should be a lesson for all modern stakeholders.

Beyond geopolitics. The Sino-Russian relations in the late 2010s Since more than a decade the international (Western) academia has been considering Sino-Russian relations as an "Axis of Convenience": a temporarily, shallow , tactical alliance prone to changing circumstances; a one that may turn into antagonism should international situation evolve. This approach reached its climax after Donald Trump's victory in US Presidential elections in 2016: many believed that there would soon be "a reverse Nixon's strategy". The reality has falsified these theses and showed that Sino-Russian relations have solid foundations. These more stable base of Russia-China relations was born in late 2000s when Russian ruling elite made a choice and decided that China did not pose a threat to current Russian regime. This elite's understanding paved a way for current Sino-Russian rapprochement.

The  political  and  diplomatic  relations  between  Turkey  and  Syria  have  often  been  characterized  by  tensions  and conflicts. Among the critical moments that have constantly occurred between these two Middle Eastern countries there is a particular common thread that is rarely subjected to critical analysis: water conflicts. In these respects, Ankara and Damascus have given rise to decades of strenuous disputes in order to obtain a geopolitical advantage in terms of hydro-hegemony.  The battlefield was the Euphrates River, one  of the most iconic  waterways  in western Asia. Dangerous tensions between Turks and Syrians occurred until 1998, when the Adana Protocol was signed. Since then, the two so-called ‘riparian’ states have inaugurated a new phase in their foreign relations, particularly concerning the common management of transboundary waters. To cement this new era of peace and stability, both governments have launched a joint project renamed ‘Friendship Dam’, a water infrastructure on the Orontes River, located on the border between Turkey and Syria. However, the crisis erupted in 2011 and the umpteenth military operation carried out by the Turkish army on Syrian soil in October 2019 have significantly thwarted the political coordination process aimed at building this mutually beneficial project.

A kriptovaluták kora című, - a jelen kötet előzményének tekinthető -könyvükben a szerzők a kriptovalutákban rejlő lehetőségeket tárták fel, egy igazságosabb globális fizetési rendszer létrehozása érdekében, amelyben nem léteznének bankok vagy pénzügyi közvetítők. Az igazsággépezet című második kötetük e gondolat kiterjesztése, amely azt vizsgálja, hogy a bitcoin mögött álló blokklánc (blockchain) technológia hogyan definiálhatja újra nagy általánosságban számos más, új felhasználási területen a társadalmi szerveződéseket és az intézményrendszereket.

In a collective action to reclaim the label of the Eastern Queendom—a legendary matriarchal kingdom—the villagers in Suopo township, Danba county, Sichuan take advantage of the media and a newly founded tourism association to press their claims by highlighting their political marginality in Danba and condemning the local state for its favoritism and partisanship. In consequence, a struggle over the “ownership” of the queendom has both manifested and generated the reconfiguration of grassroots politics on this part of the Sino-Tibetan border: exacerbated society-state relations, diversified societal and state sectors, and enhanced political participation of both elites and villagers. The locals are simultaneously engaged in an identity politics to define their manifold identities along the lines of Chinese citizenship, inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic sameness and differences, regional/local ties, professional/peasant status, marginality/majority perceptions, and (other) political stances such as loyalty to the party-state.

Simon Springer (Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Canada) contributes this short essay about his visit to Moscow and Domitrov. He organized a session titled “For Kropotkin” with Anthony Ince for the IGU Moscow Regional Conference and made a trip to the Kropotkin museum in Dmitrov.

The case of the disputed Southern Kuril Islands/Northern Territories is used to introduce the term 'hyper-border' in order to examine the instrumental and pragmatic nature of identity. It seeks to capture how, on one of Russia's most isolated borders, the quotidian realities and challenges of life 'beyond' the state had profound implications for how discourses around state, nation, sovereignty and identity are conceived. During the 1990s these islands became a site neither fully within, nor without the state. As the functions of the Russian state diminished and the border with Japan dematerialised, it was the Japanese state that came to provide welfare, infrastructure and economic opportunities for the islanders. This paper attempts to capture how the identity of islanders became articulated not on ethnic, religious or linguistic grounds, but on a purely pragmatic desire for a better life. Among some Kuril islanders an alternative vision of belonging was formulated, which sought to take them beyond the nation and into the state. This paper also traces the counter-function of the hyper-border and how an immense material and discursive response to these circumstances by the Russian state led to the recovery of the meaning of these distant islands. On a site between sovereignty regimes, this idea of the hyper-border attempts to capture how the fluctuating political authority of the state can render identity as contingent, malleable and instrumental.

The problem of historical periodization of Russian integration activity has been considered. The content of its main stages has been concretized on the basis of the analysis of historical experience. Approaches of specialists have been offered. Russia had the characteristics of empire. Territorial dimensions of the empire were incomparably greater than any of the European countries. Russian foreign policy was characterized by integration imperatives that contribute to the pursuit of the accession of lands within the Eurasian space. Periods of integration (attachment of land to the imperial center) alternated with disintegration (loss of previously acquired lands). The cycles of integration and disintegration in various ratios interacted with the modernization of society of the empire. Accession of lands is done through a cultural impact and bet on the local elite. For their subsequent merger with the imperial center used methods of military, political, ideological, demographic or socio-economic impact. The integration was carried out under the conditions of semi-peripheral position of the empire in the world capitalist system, and within the autarkic union. Ups and downs of the Russian imperial power are not subject to the chronological rhythm and have different lengths of time. Stages of amplification and integration are lasted: 125 years (1480-1605); 199 years (1613-1812); 103 years (1815-1918); 21 (1920-1941); 46 years (1945-1991). Duration of stages attenuation, disintegration and restore of imperial space, excluding the Mongolian (1237-1480: 243 years) and post-Soviet (from 1991 to the present: 24 years) periods, characterized by the relative transience: 8 years (1605-1613); 3 years (1812-1815); 2 years (1918-1920); 4 years (1941-1945).

Key words: integration; disintegration; Russia; Eurasian space; periodization.

В статье рассматривается проблема периодизации российской интеграционной активности на евразийском пространстве. На базе анализа исторического опыта конкретизировано содержание её основных этапов. Приведены подходы специалистов. Показано, что периоды взлётов и падений имперского могущества России не подчиняются хронологической ритмичности, имея различную протяжённость во времени. Выделяются пять стадий интеграционной активности и шесть – пассивности и дезинтеграции.

Ключевые слова и фразы: интеграция; дезинтеграция; Россия; евразийское пространство; периодизация.

Walls that divide are meant to be broken down. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the legacy of the East-West division can still be seen in the city's architecture, economy and overall culture. This paper examines Berlin's spatial and political history from the wall's beginnings to the long-term repercussions still being felt today.
[Les murs entre les hommes sont faits pour être détruits. Celui de Berlin, qui exprimait le refus de toute liberté migratoire dans les pays communistes, n'a pas manqué pas à la règle. Mais il laisse dans l'histoire architecturale, économique, comportementale, des traces visibles et son héritage géopolitique n'a pas fini d'exercer des effets.]

The article attempts a comprehensive review of the human security concept in order to question its utility for both research and policy-making. It notes the term’s interdisciplinary and extensively normative content that have facilitated its evolution into a successful security discourse. On the other hand, human security’s wide appeal has as a side-effect an extended conceptual polysemy inhibiting the cumulation of knowledge and the development of a relevant theory. Absence of conceptual clarity has also complicated its policy implementation. The article attempts to break the deadlock and move the debate forward by using the work of John Gerring and Paul A. Barresi on concept formation as an organizing device.

В статье анализируется содержание терминов «Азиатско-Тихоокеанский» и «Индо-Тихоокеанский», их употребление (узус). Рассматриваются несколько уровней риторики, в первую очередь схоластический и официальный. Проводится сравнительный анализ особенностей использования обоих определений в научных текстах по общественно-политической тематике, а также в правительственных документах и речах политических деятелей. Работа построена на обширном материале на разных языках, включая восточные. Особое внимание уделено дискурсу стран, наиболее активно продвигающих в последнее время термин «Индо-Тихоокеанский».

The most disappointing part of Robert M Gates memoirs are pages dealing with US Afghan War.General Mc Kiernan who Gates sacked as he was not good at sucking with Gates or pen pushers and bureaucrats like Michele Flournoy receives the most evasive treatment in Gates thick but meatless memoirs !As a matter of fact Mc Kiernan appeared as the most effective potential actor in the sordid Afghan drama destroyed by inexperienced chefs like Reidel ,Flournoy , Gates,Mc Chrystal and Petraeus.Mc Kiernan as Gates discussed in his memoirs saw the real issue with destroying insurgent safe havens in Pakistan (page-217).Gates gave this no serious thoughts in his lengthy but barren memoirs.I committed the grave  folly of buying this book and was disgusted at its lack of depth and substance when I finished it today on 23 May 2016.On page 211 Gates claims that 82nd Airborne division had done a great job in 2007 .This is debatable as 2007 saw hardly any fighting with total US casualties as low as 15 in the region held by 82nd Airborne .This was not the entire part of the story.Many US casualties in this region occurred due to the most idiotically and stupidly sited suicidal US post known as Shkin.Gates treatment about why US lives were wasted in barren wastes like Helmands are evasive and ambigious and an insult to the memory of 800 or so US lives pointlessly lost in Helmand.On page 340 Gates offers a lame duck excuse that Marines were sent to be sacrificed for no strategic purpose in Helmand as Marine general Conway wanted them deployed as a marine only show ! This is hilarious as well as ridiculous.Helmand as I worked there on USAID projects in 2004-5 contained nothing strategic except sand and drugs and morphia paste labs and there was nothing strategic in Helmand.Why Gates allowed US lives to be sacrificied for no strategic purpose will always remain an inexcusable blot on Gates shoulders as well as Mc Chrystal and Bruce Reidels shoulders .Helmand was never occupied in force by Soviets as it had no strategic significance.Why Mc Chrystal decided to sacrifice US lives there and why Gates allowed this to happen will always be a hard question to answer in US military history.As I anxiously read Gates memoirs I found no answers and was deeply disappointed with Gates lack of intellectual honesty.Gates does lamely acknowledge that it was his biggest mistake but fails to note the fact that some plus 700 US lives were lost due to Gates mistake .The greatest culprit in this exercise was US president Obama who thoughtlessly and lamely accepted the strategy of one Bruce Reidel who had never set a squadron in the field nor knew the division of battle in Afghanistan more than a spinster !Thus Gates on page-343 describes this super charge of the US Marine heavy brigade in Helmand and East Afghanistan as “ 17,000 soldiers he (Obama) already had approved would take the fight to the Taliban in the south and east ……†.Gates lamely acknowledges Pakistani duplicity about Taliban but fails throughout his book to explain what Gates did in tangible precise terms using tools of war and state craft to arm twist and discipline the Pakistanis all through his long five year long tenure as Secretary of Defence while he enjoyed power and munched KFC meals ! Apart from lacking a powerful pen Gates stands out as a man with a bad appetite and an inclination to like KFC junk meals !On page 344 Gates claims that generals like Mc Chrystal were great tactical innovators but fails to furnish a single proof of what great laurels were achieved precisely by Mc Chrystal in Afghanistan ?On page 345 Gates still remains unable to decide why he fired Mc Kiernan other than citing Michele Flournoy who was hardly a qualified judge to rate Mc Kiernan with only years of apple polishing and pedantry as a DOD civilian bureaucrat !Naturally Gates could not admit that Mc Kiernan was not good at sucking !

De par sa localisation, son histoire, et du fait de la répartition
transfrontalière du peuple serbe, la Serbie joue un rôle central dans
l’espace ex-yougoslave. Encore aujourd’hui, ses choix politiques
influent plus ou moins directement sur les États voisins, en particulier
sur la Croatie, la Bosnie-Herzégovine, le Monténégro ou le Kosovo.