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Reddit mentions of The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives

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Reddit mentions: 41

We found 41 Reddit mentions of The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives. Here are the top ones.

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Found 41 comments on The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives:

u/BellyFullOfSwans · 20 pointsr/Documentaries

Read Zbigniew Brzezinski's book The Grand Chessboard

There is no one person short of Henry Kissinger who has been more of a political insider through last 4 decades than Brzezinski. He was a key figure in supporting the Mujahideen and he almost single handedly created Al Qaeda (Al Qaeda means "the base", which referred to Brzezinski's database of useful Mujahideen fighters).

Brzezinski has advised on foreign policy from Carter to Obama and everyone in between. His book and his own words document the reasons for and the consequences of the US' role in the creation of Al Qaeda.

Any video claiming to give information on the beginnings of Al Qaeda/ISIS is horribly incomplete without THAT story....especially when the words come from the horse's mouth and the man is still alive today (his daughter is the co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC).

u/jf_ftw · 10 pointsr/actualconspiracies

Especially when its laid out in a book by Jimmy Carters National Security Advisor

http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Chessboard-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261

u/momerath · 9 pointsr/politics

Invading Iraq, and doing an ostensibly bad job of it, were only one small part of the desired outcome of 9/11. Read PNAC's Rebuilding America's Defenses. The Grand Chessboard by Obama adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, is similarly illuminating and nausea-inducing.

u/plistig · 9 pointsr/600euro

Weitere Erklärungen wurden nachgereicht!

>
Ich habe 8 Jahre für die Bundeswehr / NATO gearbeitet. Da bin ich oft in die USA, dort wurde mir das 2003/4 schon gesagt. Ebenso die Entwicklung in Syrien.
>
Eine Revolution oder ein Krieg ist immer lange geplant. Das passiert alles nicht zufällig und einfach so. Es wird die politische Lage beobachtet und dann entweder gegengesteuert, wenn man eine Entwicklung nicht haben will oder befeuert wenn die Entwicklung im nationalen Interesse ist. Dann wird eine Werbekampagne gefahren (Brunnen bauen in Afghanistan, böser Russe muss zurückgedrängt werden, im Irak gibt es Massenvernichtungswaffen, Erdogan böse, deswegen sind wir jetzt in Jordanien). Eigentlich spielen alle das gleiche Spiel und alle miteinander. Ebenso ist die Krim-Übername der Russen von allen mehr oder weniger abgesegnet. Dafür kann der Rest zur EU, mit Krim und Schwarzmeerflotte wäre das nicht möglich gewesen.
>
In Jordanien sind wir aber nicht wegen Erdogan, sondern wegen den Palästinänsern, und ihrem neuen Staat den es bald geben wird und Jordanien dabei eine wichtige Rolle spielen wird.
>
Mehr gibts eigentlich nicht zu erklären. DIe Nachrichtendienste sind dabei die, welche die Informationen sammeln, und Nachrichten für die Öffentlichkeit aufbereiten. Nicht in Deutschland, aber die deutschen Medien sprechen auch alles nach, was von Übersee kommt.
>
Das ganze funktioniert sogut, weil die allermeisten bei den Themen gleich austeigen und es nicht glauben wollen. Andere beschuldigen dann sie seien Verschwörungstheoretiker und so geht das Spielt halt weiter.
>
Wenn Du Dir das Buch "The Great Chessboard" durchliest, dann wurde da schon ziemlich genau die Zukunft 15 Jahre vorausgessagt. Das ist durchaus möglich. Wenn die Vorhersage also im nationalen Interesse ist, wird versucht, das geschehen zu lassen.
>
Und die AfD war eben, dann guter Aufklärung schon 2003 bekannt, ebenso wie 1998 die Entwicklung in der Ukraine oder im Nahen Osten bekannt war (Buch dient als Beweis)

Falls jemand sich das Buch kaufen will https://www.amazon.de/_/dp/0465027261

u/Rey_del_Doner · 8 pointsr/Turkey

Anti-Turkish sentiment was unleashed when Turkey began accession negotiations to join the EU. The more reforms Turkey passed, the more frantic many Europeans became, so they began accepting all anti-Turkish propaganda available on every Turkish issue.

Now the anger is about Turkey going with the alternative of a Middle East strategy. This wasn’t Erdoğan’s idea. Turkey becoming more Islamic and increasing its cooperation with Russia and the Arab world after being outcasted by the EU was a rational act predicted by political scientists before AKP ever came to power.

Most Westerners don’t have agendas related to Turkey and they're usually reasonable people, but there’s definitely a derangement people develop by reading Western news about Turkey. At this point, you’d have a more accurate understanding of the PKK, the 2016 failed coup and its aftermath, Erdoğan, etc. from reading Daily Sabah than you would from much of the Western press. That’s sad.

u/somewhathungry333 · 7 pointsr/Futurology

Shit is getting real in secret, this is former national security advisor of the united states Zbigniew Brezinski, rule of law is effectively over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ZyJw_cHJY

A book he wrote in 1969:

https://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Ages-Americas-Technetronic/dp/0313234981/

"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities."

The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261/

u/xingfenzhen · 6 pointsr/Sino

Well, you are not the ones decide to invade not invade. Here are some article that give hint of what's going on in the head of those who do. Brzezinski's book is especially interesting, as it was written in the 1990s. Many event since then, especially in the middle east and central asia, follows its advice. And the guy who wrote the come war with china is in the trump government as their china expert.

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-China-Wars-Revised-Expanded/dp/0132359820

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-12-11/who-will-run-world

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2018-10-15/vanishing-nuclear-taboo

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2018-10-15/beijings-nuclear-option

and to put things in historical perspective read the following as well

https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Asia-Effect-International-Politics/dp/0765805243

https://www.iwp.edu/docLib/20131016_MackinderTheGeographicalJournal.pdf

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/1947-07-01/sources-soviet-conduct

u/logicalutilizor · 6 pointsr/politics

I think it's a hybrid on both what Israel and the US wants. Multinational western corporations has a huge interest in protecting the availability and resources in competition with e.g. China. A few years back I read Zbigniew Brzezinski's (Obama's dad) book "The Grand Chessboard", there he makes the case for a crucial economical, geopolitical interests (for US-EU) that is dependent on a strong Israel as a stronghold towards the new far east trading blocks.

Every American should read this book.

u/anon36 · 5 pointsr/gaming

This is the usual place to start: 1953 Iranian coup d'état

> The 1953 Iranian coup d'état occurred on August 19, 1953. Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown by forces loyal to the Shah, and coordinated by British and American intelligence services.

Tip of the iceberg, really. WWI also had an oil & middle east component, but that was more Great Britain than America per se.

The current situation is best described by Zbigniew Brzezinski in The Grand Chessboard, IMO.

u/Putin_loves_cats · 4 pointsr/conspiracy

The Grand Chessboard. Written by: Zbigniew Brzezinski.

u/[deleted] · 4 pointsr/worldnews

I can explain part of it. The U.S. government wants to slowly encircle China via the ME. It's two fold, oil and minerals are rich in the ME, and we get to build bases dotting the landscape over there. They plan very far out into the future and it's been evidenced in such writings as "The Grand Chessboard" by Zbigniew Brzezinski and the writings of Carroll Quigley.


Here's an interesting interview with Quigley

http://youtu.be/OxVlBVXwU5k

u/go_fly_a_kite · 3 pointsr/conspiracy

>is this a proxy confict with Russia?

yes

  • balkanization

  • detente

  • realpolitik

    "How America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Chessboard-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261
u/horse_spelunker · 3 pointsr/conspiratard

One of the cycling official reasons, yes. For a less jingoistic understanding of US foreign policy, I might suggest The Grand Chessboard by Brzezinski and Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky and Herman. In short, the US would never mobilize its considerable war power at such cost just out of pure, altruistic desire to topple a dictator. No doubt you're aware of the many dictators the US has installed and supported over the years.

u/freedompolis · 3 pointsr/IRstudies

The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives

by Zbigniew Brzezinski

Zbigniew Brzezinski tackles the United States grand strategy on maintaining American preeminence in the twenty-first century.

> Central to his analysis is the exercise of power on the Eurasian landmass, which is home to the greatest part of the globe's population, natural resources, and economic activity. Stretching from Portugal to the Bering Strait, from Lapland to Malaysia, Eurasia is the ”grand chessboard” on which America's supremacy will be ratified and challenged in the years to come. The task facing the United States, he argues, is to manage the conflicts and relationships in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East so that no rival superpower arises to threaten our interests or our well-being.The heart of The Grand Chessboard is Brzezinski's analysis of the four critical regions of Eurasia and of the stakes for America in each arena—Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and East Asia. The crucial fault lines may seem familiar, but the implosion of the Soviet Union has created new rivalries and new relationships, and Brzezinski maps out the strategic ramifications of the new geopolitical realities. He explains, for example: Why France and Germany will play pivotal geostrategic roles, whereas Britain and Japan will not. Why NATO expansion offers Russia the chance to undo the mistakes of the past, and why Russia cannot afford to toss this opportunity aside. Why the fate of Ukraine and Azerbaijan are so important to America. Why viewing China as a menace is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why America is not only the first truly global superpower but also the last—and what the implications are for America's legacy.

u/ricebake333 · 3 pointsr/politics

>I really appreciate you posting this stuff. Its a real eye opener.

You'll probably enjoy books by blum:

http://williamblum.org/aer/read/137

US distribution of wealth

https://imgur.com/a/FShfb

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html


The grand chessboard

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261/

u/funkybside · 3 pointsr/politics

Also the guy who wrote this this.

u/avengingturnip · 2 pointsr/EndlessWar

Do you want to know why we are in Afghanistan and are never planning on leaving? Here is the answer. Geopolitics.

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261

u/blash2190 · 2 pointsr/CredibleDefense

> I'll concede the point that the US is very concerned by Chinas's rise but Russia's?

Wolfowitz Doctrine, 1992

"Russian threat" segment, unedited (ie "before being leaked") version:

> We continue to recognize that collectively the conventional forces of the states formerly comprising the Soviet Union retain the most military potential in all of Eurasia; and we do not dismiss the risks to stability in Europe from a nationalist backlash in Russia or efforts to reincorporate into Russia the newly independent republics of Ukraine, Belarus, and possibly others....We must, however, be mindful that democratic change in Russia is not irreversible, and that despite its current travails, Russia will remain the strongest military power in Eurasia and the only power in the world with the capability of destroying the United States.

This translates well in what is now happening in Ukraine. Here is was mister Brzezinski has to say about Ukraine in his book:
> Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasion chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire. Russia without Ukraine can still strive for imperial status, but it would then become a predominantly Asian imperial state, more likely to be drawn into debilitating conflicts with aroused Central Asians, who would then be resentful of the loss of their recent independence and would be supported by their fellow Islamic states to the South.

Furthermore,

> Indeed, the Ukraine’s relationship to Europe could be the turning point for Russia itself. But that also means that the defining moment for Russia’s relationship to Europe is still some time off – ‘defining’ in the sense that Ukraine’s choice in favor of Europe will bring to a head Russia’s decision regarding the next phase of its history: either to be a part of Europe as well or to become a Eurasian outcast, neither truly of Europe nor Asia and mired in its ‘near abroad’ conflicts.

I suggest you digging up the book. It contains quite a number of interesting thoughts regarding the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. Unfortunately, I can't provide the most interesting of them right now.

Edit: fixed the link

u/OleToothless · 2 pointsr/geopolitics

Sure, although it really depends on which geopolitical facets you enjoy the most.

Zbigniew Brzezinski's The Grand Chessboard. Heavily influences US foreign policy. http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462464442&sr=1-1&keywords=zbigniew+brzezinski

George Friedman's The Next 100 Years. This is the guy that started Stratfor and this book is a large part of why they started getting so much attention. I really like Friedman but I do find his actual prose can be pretty droll. http://www.amazon.com/Next-100-Years-Forecast-Century/dp/0767923057/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462464571&sr=1-3&keywords=george+friedman

Charles Lister's The Syrian Jihad. Good read. http://www.amazon.com/Syrian-Jihad-Al-Qaeda-Evolution-Insurgency/dp/0190462477?ie=UTF8&keywords=charles%20lister&qid=1462464907&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1


Any of Kissinger's books would probably be worth reading. Even if you don't like the guy, he's not dumb by any stretch, and he's still pretty influential.

If I think of more I'll post 'em.

u/markth_wi · 2 pointsr/politics

I would say in so far as one considers the overall question of who's interests are being served in the greater middle east, while clearly up until the 1960's or so, there was a favorable attitude towards Israel as a strong proxy in resistance to Communism , it could be seen as a secondary.

A fascinating book on neoconservative political though, Leo Strauss' "Thoughts on Machiavelli", pointed out that among what we would today identify as neoconservatives, they should endeavor to gain and keep literary and ideological influence in the US political structure.

Strauss makes a second major (although very obscurant) observation that given the Western penchant for representative government, if one really wants to lead, the "best" form of representative democracy is in fact totalitarian democracy, whereby people elect a leadership, but that leadership effectively has absolute power, during it's tenure.

Even a cursory reading of constitutional writings makes it pretty abundantly clear, this vision is not exactly what the founders had envisioned, and in fact can be seen as highly incompatible with the original intent of US constitutional processes.

Neoconservatives, however, during the later years of the 1960's (and this is a FASCINATING observation made by many early neoconservatives), especially after the 1967 days war and the attack on the USS Liberty, it became increasingly clear to Irving Krystol and others that polemic influence was rapidly declining as the "left" in the United States became increasingly difficult to gain reliable outputs from the political process ;Representative "Scoop" Jackson was being investigated for espionage, the Viet Nam anti-war movement was in full swing, and it was unclear the "left" would long remain uncritical of Israeli political/military positions, indefinitely)

So the notion to "switch" political affiliation started ,and astutely re-ordered itself slowly becoming rhetorically reflective of and ultimately part and parcel of the conservative movement - which was seen as far more capable of being managed rhetorically.

More painful to read was that what neoconservatism should do, first and foremost is decide what is wanted, and disregard the practical considerations , or reasons one might not want to do such a thing; this is a tragic element of neoconservatism since it encourages the political class to disregard the well being of any host society and perform at some political 'id' level of functioning - effectively giving philosophical sanction to sociopathy - that makes Ayn Rand look positively generative by comparison.

In this way we can attribute the decline of "realpolitik" to the political maneuverings and ascent of neoconservatism within the Reagan administration, ultimately consigning that political tradition to the last holders of those political views in the 1990's , (Schultz, Bush Sr, Scowcroft even Kissinger were marginalized)

Today we see this in the preposterous ideological stances of some Israeli leaders (Avi Lieberman for example) proposes that non-loyal Jews (and of course all Arabs/Sephardi) be required to take loyalty tests or be "relocated", how one fails or passes a loyalty test and when the disloyal Israeli citizen is relocated is not mentioned. More perverse is the notion of racial purity gangs sprouting up, that are not actively discouraged. That said, I'm not Israeli, these days, if they want to setup racial purity laws, or ethnically houseclean, it's not my concern, although history clearly shows that ultimately it does become our concern eventually (honestly, who in the US, wants to end up on the wrong side of another Apartheid argument).

In US politics, you get the notion of constant warfare, I dislike the polemic of Chomsky on this point but do find that there is a very strong element of don't ask whether it's in the interests of the United States, but rather ask whether it is in the interests of these ideologues and then push hard for whatever it is.

This operates in concert with the overall feeling of some in the US oriented political class that military might is the signature element of US power, rather than taking the traditional / historical view (Paul Kennedy makes this case in his excellent book "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" , that military power is a direct consequence of economic power, and that confusing the two / or failure to reconcile the relation has repeatedly lead to the self-destruction of more than one economic power in the past.

So it is for that reason , pretty much alone, that the United States, does very well for itself by constraining it's military expeditions to those which are strictly necessary and similarly keeping military and other social support expenditures well below our means if we mean to persist as a functional nation-state.

Zbigniew Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard" makes a grand statement about US presence and influence in the US, but does so in a surprisingly insightful way, it's an excellent counterpoint to alot of the geopolitical views that hold sway today, covering many of the same problems, but with a more US centered focus.

In recent readings, I think one of my favorite books on the subject was a short and easy read by Donald Kagan "On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace", or , both of which basically lays out the notion (although he NEVER states as much for obvious reasons), that US military dominance implies a duty to preserve US interests in the Eurasian sphere of influence, limiting the ascent of China and dominance of Russia.

Most of these positions are entirely counter to the positions taken historically in the US, and more disturbingly they are directly counter to the actions and policies of all of the major developed nations (Japan, Germany, England, France) which 40 years ago, made coherent energy ,infrastructure and industrial policies that slowly moved their nation-states away from oil, and the geopolitical instability of the Middle East.

More damningly I think this political worldview, rather abruptly disrupted, our educational system, both at the liberal arts and especially the scientific level;

There is a peculiar animus towards scientists who can counter the political views of absolutism, one of the best examples of this was very early on when Richard Perle got shut-down, from his hard-line and openly discredited idea that the Soviet Union was "breaking" US / USSR arms treaty conditions, here a knowledgeable expert destroyed Perle in a public forum, especially as the 1980's continued.

It was possible to see the vast efficiencies of computers and later communications (ultimately leading to the internet in later years), but these innovations are the legacy of the R&D and generous funding of the late 1950's and 1960's, today rather than innovate and engineer around the economic & resource constraints in our economy, we shuffle money around and hope someone else clever comes up with ideas.

Ultimately, however the sad tale ends up in the actions that warranted the removal from office of most of the political operatives and strong ideological advocates of neoconservativsm in the United States military / civilian establishment, in 2003-4, when FBI (CIA and DIA conducted similar investigations internally) all started to determine independently, that US interests, were not just being poorly served, but in fact were undermined, forcing the Bush administration to remove or allow to retire almost all of the major players, although , the damage was done, the US had overthrown the Iraqi leadership by this time.

In the run-up to the war in Iraq, and less successfully against Iran by stove-piping questionable information to the US administration, and in some cases there was evidence of at the very least questionable and arguably treasonous actions undertaken by some elements of the political/military administration under the Bush administration.

Personally, I found the investigation and continued influence of these guys totally disheartening, and it has made me very apathetic to continued US involvement in the Middle East whatsoever.

It seems simply far more logical , and in concert with our longer term interests, to just load up on static energy production - solar, thermal, wind , "cleaner" coal, and just do whatever is possible to maintain a small footprint in the region, and re-establish our governmental educational/industrial/military trajectory from - what - a generation ago?

u/Bizkitgto · 2 pointsr/geopolitics

Brzezinski's The Grand Chessboard is a great place to start.

u/conspirobot · 1 pointr/conspiro

go_fly_a_kite: ^^original ^^reddit ^^link

>is this a proxy confict with Russia?

yes

  • balkanization

  • detente

  • realpolitik

    "How America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Chessboard-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261
u/caferrell · 1 pointr/EndlessWar

>>ROFL! So the Rangers and CIA assasins, the Special Forces and Marines have been converted from agents of oppression into million dollar per year farmers? Are you unable to see a propaganda stunt when you see it?

>They are also building schools, hospitals and infrastructure. You can choose to stay blind to this fact, but that does not mean they're not true. However, it would be preferable if you didn't discredit the work of our soldiers so much.

There you go again. Changing things and not answering a specific question. Purposely misleading. You said that soldiers are repairing agricultural land and I said that its a propaganda stunt, which it clearly is, and then you change to the American taxpayer building schools and hospitals. Its just propaganda. If we really wanted to help these people we wouldn't be killing them.

Why are we so intent on staying in Afghanistan? For humanitarian reasons? ROLF. Read "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives" by Zbigniew Brzezinski which lays out a foreign policy aimed at domination of Central Asia that has been a mainstay of US foreign policy for fifteen years. In another comment you said that Bush's reasons for invading Iraq are not important, which is as immoral a statement than I can imagine. Just as important as the profound motivations that moved Bush to invade Iraq are the reasons that the US means to remain in Afghanistan. And it isn't about building schools and hospitals.

If our real motivation were humanitarian it would be easy and cost less than 5% of what we are currently spending on killing people to make peace with the Taliban, help them divide Afghanistan into Pashtun and non-Pashtun autonomous districts, retire all US forces from Afghanistan and then hire Afgan, Iranian and Pakistani companies to build schools and hospitals.

But instead we are negotiating to keep military bases in Afghanistan until 2024. That will guarantee a permanent armed struggle, permanent killing in order for the Empire to have bases that can control pipelines and trade routes between Iran, the Stans, Pakistan and China. Its not about schools.

By the way, the people who live in Afghanistan are Afghans. Their currency is called the Afghani.

u/Casus125 · 1 pointr/AskMen

The Grand Chessboard.

Non-fiction about Geopolitics and Geopolitical Strategy. Originally published in 1998, the book has proved to be quite prescient and insightful.

u/MegasBasilius · 1 pointr/neoliberal

Chiming in to mention The Grand Chessboard, who's author--Zbigniew Brzezinski--just passed away a few days ago.

It outlines America's grand strategy in the post ColdWar world, and is still relevant even in our post-2008 Recession world. A must read for IR.

u/OldLifeForm · 1 pointr/reddit.com

Also try - Grand Chessboard. He uses it as a textbook to his classes. I've seen it making rounds on p2p networks. Take the latest edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261

u/El_Gran_Fantasma · 1 pointr/craftofintelligence

So everything, in your mind, ties back to oil? Not the hotbed of terrorism? You haven't mentioned precious metal mines in Afghanistan? The Chinese? The belt?

Have you ever read The Grand Chessboard? There's a section in it talking about the plan involving the ME and China.

I remember Bin Laden's piece.

You sound a little supportive of Jihadis. That's worrisome.

u/callmebaiken · 1 pointr/politics

Right, but the principle is the same. Flynn visited Russia as a private citizen who was a fan of Putin. He consulted with Trump because they both see America's role in the world similarly. Manafort never worked for Putin but for a Putin-backed leader in Ukraine. He got the gig with Trump through mutual friend Roger Stone. Trump, Flynn, and Manafort probably all share a similar view on Russia, and had Trump never run for office and you asked all three in 2017 they probably all would share the same view, and it's the view I have as well. Putin is a strong man, he's a killer no doubt, but that's none of our business really in an "America First" oriented foreign policy. The opposite of this kind of non-interference is quite clearly seen in the meddling our country was involved in in Ukraine in 2014. Before that our relations with Russia were good publicly. We played games behind the scenes as part of a Grand Chessboard
Eurasian strategy and of course Putin fought back. He's not dumb, he knows what's going on just like we do. He knows we tried the same shenanigans in Syria after the Arab Spring (which likely was real). When he saw Obama wasn't going to go beyond proxy war there he stepped in and mopped up our little operation and that's when he became "a thug, a killer, a dictator" according to McCain and Rubio and Rachel Maddow and all the rest, when he never changed for 16 years and they couldn't care less the first 15 years.

So for whatever reason Flynn and Manafort are former Establishment types who left or were ousted from the inner circles but they know all the games going on against Russia. They let Putin know, look if Trump gets in office we're ending these spy games and proxy wars. We're going to stop pushing NATO into aggressive postures on your doorstep. We're going to take off sanctions. Rather than good vs bad, a more realistic view of foreign policy is to see different power groups vying for position. The sitiuation we have now is men in the white house who understand the real situation and the players and the games, but who are free agents. That's why the establishment has been so freaked out ever since it was clear Trump could win through to today. Because Flynn, Bannon, Trump, et al are really free agents who've somehow gained the controls of state and aren't interested in using America as a battering ram against the few rogue states still holding out from Anglo American domination, or using our military as a mercenary force on behalf of banks and multinationals, or completing a project of global domination. They want to discontinue all that and instead direct that energy towards making America Great Again for its own citizens. That is their great crime.

u/fish60 · 1 pointr/news

>The U.S. decided to fight the Taliban because they, as an entity, supported Al Qaeda with money and equipment, and provided them safe havens to train in. Plus, as a bonus, they're huge pieces of shit who treat women like dirt and have turned child abuse into a national pastime.

You can level the same criticisms at Saudi Arabia, but we're best buds with them.

>Whatever pipeline might cross Afghanistan didn't remotely enter into it

If you seriously believe that geopolitical concerns related to projecting America's hegemony into resource rich regions of the world, and maintaining America's role as the only true world super-power, played no part in the Afghanistan war, then I suggest you read 'The Grand Chessboard' and learn about PNAC.


> if you believe otherwise, you're an idiot.

Ad hominem attacks on my mental faculties show that you don't believe that your arguments have sufficient merits on their own, and, so, you must resort to cheap insults without providing further content to the discussion.

u/dieyoufool3 · 1 pointr/geopolitics

It's one of their biases, though it's not anti-china as much as its not pushing to legitimize China's claims on the East Asian Sea/South China Sea. But save that comment for later this week, as I'll post a (hopefully on monthly or bi-monthly basis) discussion Friday regarding critical analysis of a certain publication/source's short-sight and biases. From there we would cycle through the most common publications posted, offering great opportunities to pool our communal perspectives (Fact-check, etc).

On on a more abstract level publication like "the Diplomat" do provide is an interesting case study of soft power projection from the broader American-lead consensus relating to foreign policy (aka current alliance orientations). Though using words like alliance may sound like 19th anachronism, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote the highly influencial book The Grand Chessboard. Terminology he puts forth is often used, particularly as a lens of analysis in the recent Crimean Crisis. Anyways, he describes Japan's role in the US grand strategy as a "vassal". So that might be a rough and ready reason for the publication's particular thematic choices.

u/prx124 · -2 pointsr/russia

In 1999? Where have I heard this before... oh, yeah! I think Brzezinski had something to say about that in 1997.

Here is a kicker. Putin is ex-KGB, everybody hide! Brzezinski is ex-NSA adviser to the president of the US. Pfft... don't worry, it's just a book. They would never pursue such policy, stop with your conspiracies Russia, gosh!

u/arguelogically · -3 pointsr/AdviceAnimals

i'm not blindly accepting it. you only believe that because you believe what america is doing is wrong. thats how self centered you are. because you believe anyone who supports the afghan/iraq war must be ignorant.

you want to know why we're truly in iraq and afghanistan then pick up a book.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Chessboard-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261

then you can stop pretending like you're so high and mighty and the rest of us are ignorant. when in reality you're the fucking one that is ignorant.

edit**

please leave America

u/claymcdab · -4 pointsr/worldnews

You should read The Grand Chessboard. You would enjoy it very much and then understand everything that is happening has been orchestrated for decades.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Chessboard-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261

u/grandpagotstitches · -7 pointsr/PoliticalDiscussion

Not at all. Haven't you guys seen how much Trump celebrates his endorsements from football's coaches and players? The fact is that football, NFL and college, plays a significant role in the lives of the people Trump is courting. Scheduling a debate around the time of a major NFL game which can lure away some of his audience could actually be a real disadvantage. It does make sense to complain about this. It also raises awareness of the debates for his Twitter followers. Given the state of things, they'll probably skip the debate whoops I meant the game.

At some point, there will be an autopsy done, not just by Democrats and Republicans, but by something like the Trilateral Commission, about the erosion of trust in the government's authority. Lots of pretty words, plenty of serious analysis. Once upon a time, major newspapers and the nightly news were accused of not having enough allegiance to the federal government and spreading cynicism. And now, social media's supposed "Choose your own adventure" style of journalism will likely be accused of creating a brand new challenge for the federal government. The filter bubble, the 'post-fact' era, etc, these ideas have been picked up and spread around by the major papers since about November already.

Nothing will be said about the government's abandonment of the people for the interests of the rich. Nothing about lost jobs, prisons, constant war. Nothing about the entire world tired of being told to wait. And nothing about a public tired of the human sacrifices in Orlando, San Bernadino, Paris, Baghdad, Istanbul the global elites offered up to the heavens so that they could maintain their dirty profits and hegemony. Dead innocents were weighed against the plan to circle the underbelly of Eurasia so that we could make the fat cats and their leeches fatter. And the dead, no matter their citizenship, were found wanting.

If there is any mention of it, it'll just be called a perception, a feeling deep down in the lizard brain. The only thing they'll end up recommending to battle that sort of thing will be lies, slogans, rhetoric. Maybe a new Ministry of Information. Some way to turn the protesting public back towards apathy. "Effective democratic political systems requires some measure of apathy and non involvement on the part of some individuals and groups" (p. 124), they'll say. But it'll never be policy.