By Fabio Reis Vianna for the Saker Blog Perhaps the maxim of the Brazilian thinker José Luís Fiori that “expansionism and war are two essential parts of the machine that produces power and wealth in the interstate system” has never been so pertinent and seems to be confirmed at the exact historical moment we are witnessing. The extraordinary events that resulted from the Russian intervention in Ukraine, which began on
By Fabio Reis Vianna for TheSaker blog When the world system was still in its infancy in that appendix of the Eurasian continent we know today as Europe, Babur, the King of Kabul, entered India from the northwest to establish the Mughal Empire in 1526, outlining an empire that would later be consolidated by his grandson Akbar (1556 – 1605). The splendor of the great Eastern civilizations took place in
By Fabio Reis Vianna for The Saker Blog Even if the rhetoric and the interim security strategy of the Joe Biden administration itself tries to give a multilateralist veneer to the idea that the benevolent hegemon would be back, the reality imposed by the increase in competitive pressure, which deepens after the outbreak of the pandemic, and acquires dramatic contours in the so-called “vaccine war”, reveals a challenging scenario for
By Fabio Reis Vianna for the Saker Blog The scandalous smokescreen represented by the refusal of the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) to recommend the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and the “technical” veto, minutely detailed in a report prepared by “impartial experts committed to science”, hides something that understandably escapes the knowledge of the Brazilian public. Accustomed to accepting explanations endorsed by “authorities on the subject” and
By Fabio Reis Vianna for The Saker Blog In an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine – one of the most prominent mouthpieces of US imperialism – , and signed by, among others, Marcus Hicks, former commander of the US Special Operations Command in Africa during the period 2017-2019, defends the idea that the increased competition between the great powers ignites a red alert that the United States should turn
By Fabio Reis Vianna for the Saker Blog At the end of the tragic year 2020, Jake Sullivan launched a tweet urging Europeans to act together in the face of “China’s worrying economic behavior.” Today’s National Security Advisor to the newly sworn-in Democratic administration thus gave the first signs of what the Joe Biden administration would look like to the traditional allies of the United States. Sullivan’s words not only
By Fabio Reis Vianna for the Saker Blog In a recent article published in the American magazine Foreign Affairs, Christorpher Layne, professor of international relations at the University of Texas, defends the thesis that a hegemonic war between the United States and China, if tensions escalate at the current pace, is not unlikely. In his article The Return of Great-Power War, the author argues that the intensification of geopolitical competition
By Fabio Reis Vianna for The Saker Blog In 1870, when it was devastated by the war against Prussia, the France of the deposed Emperor Napoleon III would fall into a fratricidal internal division that would take many years to heal. The painful peace imposed by Bismarck would mark French society in that beginning of the Third Republic, where a country immersed in chaos sought a way out for its
Fabio Reis Vianna for The Saker Blog When U.S. President Donald Trump announced on December 2 the taxation of Brazilian and Argentine steel, restoring the immediate effect of the “tariffs on all steel and aluminum sent to the United States by these countries,” the amateur members of Bolsonaro´s government were unable to hide their disbelief in their faces of disappointment. Even with reality falling on their heads, the blindness of
By Fabio Reis Vianna for The Saker Blog In 1914, Countess Kleinmichel, a typical representative of the Russian aristocracy, offered her nieces what for her would be a “modest” fantasy ball: 300 guests divided into small and full tables, as was customary in the high-wheels of that society as divided as it was unequal. While the extravagant elites of Moscow and St. Petersburg lived in exuberant mansions filled with works
By Fabio Reis Vianna for The Saker Blog On October 29th, the Cycle of Seminars on World Economy Analysis, organized by professors Monica Bruckmann and Franklin Trein, received in the Noble Hall of the IFCS-UFRJ, in Rio de Janeiro, the illustrious presence of the former vice-president of the BRICS Development Bank, Professor Paulo Nogueira Batista. In the midst of the peculiar moment of social upheavals that are spreading throughout the
