NM's blog

  An article subject to subscription . Read here then continue with some excerpts below. ******** Palantir is the data backbone of the authoritarian state, and Anduril is its autonomous warfare command system, turning information dominance into automated military power. Its Lattice platform connects satellite feeds, radar data and battlefield imagery into a single operational network, allowing military missions to be planned and executed at lightning speed. The company claims its systems can function at ‘level 5 autonomy’: launching, identifying targets, striking and returning without human intervention. [Starshield, SpaceX’s of Elon Musk]  When NATO’s battlefield communications depend on infrastructure controlled by one man who openly endorses European far-right parties, defence autonomy becomes theatrical fiction. Other solutions such as GovCloud, from Amazon Web Services, or Azure Government, provided by Microsoft – in partnership with OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic – are now e...

Convergence?

It is good to stay up to date with 'geopolitics', but political science without political economy does not reveal a more accurate picture of the world.

Before he became part of the genocide supporters “Starmer wants to be thought a 'safe pair of hands', communicated above all in his commitment to the country's most conservative institutions and ideas, from NATO to sound money to royalism. He clings insecurely to the symbolic security of the flag and its metonyms, sends himself up with tryhard images of himself enjoying football with the lads and a pint, because he is terrified of being seen as anything but utterly mediocre. It's shameful to have a political enemy like Starmer , who progresses almost by default, simply because of the way the historical deck is stacked, and because of his willingness to exploit whatever evanescent advantages come his way, rather than because of any particular skill, charisma, or historical necessity of his appearance.” Good, but What is the point of using wrods that do not exist in a dictionary or online?

‘But we liberals are not responsible’.  This is just a brief comment as there are many things to say about the editorial. Notice the use of the word ‘imperialism’. Since when the Guardian uses such a term in its editorials? Imperialism did not apply to the ‘liberal order’ prior to Trump except in some articles in the opinion section. “Vance, Elon Musk and hard-right agitators such as Steve Bannon have a vision of a Europe run not by elected liberal-progressive coalitions but by people like themselves.” Trump and ‘new order’ have come out of a blue sky. We were sleeping. The morning after, there was Trump and an ‘illiberal order.”  No historical background, no sociology . The so-called liberal progressives were innocents in the room. They did not have blood in their hands. Nor did they preside over an imperialist international order. Selectivity. Perpetuating Amnesia. Ignoring structure and systemic analysis. Furthermore, their decades had not to do with the political-economic ...

“It is fair to assume that the different fractions of the ruling class in a country sometimes have diverging, even opposing interests. But if the country is the empire that dominates the world, on one point at least the ruling classes will agree: they do not want to see the basis of their power (i.e., the nation-empire) weakened. Those who have power intend, at a minimum, to maintain it, if not consolidate or expand it. So it is reasonable to infer that the conflicting interests between the various fractions manifest themselves in different strategies for ruling the world, in different conceptions of empire. “ Despite all his bombastic proclamations, Trump has not started any wars. Under Biden we are already on the second.” Elective affinities

Like other tools, NATO has been an arm of US-led imperialism, and using the liberal language,  acting “as a ratings agency for the European Union in Eastern Europe, declaring countries secure for development and investment. The organization pushed would-be partners to adhere to a liberal, pro-market creed.” Furthermore, “ NATO  has stymied the emergence of any semiautonomous European force capable of independent action... In fact,  NATO  is working exactly as it was designed by  postwar U.S. planners , drawing Europe into a dependency on American power that reduces its room for manoeuvre.” “The war [in Ukraine] serves as a dress rehearsal for U.S. confrontation with China, in which European support cannot be so easily counted on.” And “left parties in Europe, historically critical of militarism and American power, have overwhelmingly enlisted in the defense of the West…” In sum, NATO is about defence of expansion. ********* If Russia sought to divide E...

Profiting from war

“Then, as now, there’s something particularly vile – if you’ll permit the term – about the US telling its proxy warriors: we must be united in the defence of democracy and freedom against authoritarianism; we’ll arm you, but you do the dying. Oh, and your country will be pulverised in the process. (‘ Armiamoci e partite ’ was a popular early twentieth-century riposte to such militarism.) The similarities don’t stop there. The strongest resemblance between past and present lies in the elite somnambulism bringing us to the brink of world war and nuclear holocaust. It’s simply not the case that if one side is wrong, the other must be right; the negation of a falsehood is not by definition true. Everyone can be in the wrong, everyone can be lying.” Sleepwalking elites

A review of Helen Thompson’s Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century

The battle for Ukraine

Ottoman revival?

“The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values. The PRC employs a broad range of political, economic and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up. The PRC’s malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation target Allies and harm Alliance security. The PRC seeks to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains. It uses its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence. It strives to subvert the rules-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains. The deepening strategic partnership between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run co...

A leftist detaching the economy and sociology from politics and geopolitics. Is this an approach to counter the liberal and conservative approaches? Maintaining or expanding U.S. hegemony. Yes, but what does that hegemony consist of? What does drive it? Yet it is still worth a read.

We should add the international economic situation to this good analysis. Heading for victory, despite dismal record

I disagree with Callinicos’s position on Syriza though. It sounds an ultra-leftist stance for me, and he does not specify when Syriza should have been opposed before the capitulation of Alexis Tsipras or after. A reply to Paul Mason

“Neither the respectable left nor the hardline liberals can explain how spiralling ‘punishments’ are meant to bring a quick end to the war, still less a lasting peace.”  Invasion of Ukraine: more on hypocrisy, warmongering and the innocent abroad

Irish law maker speaks out

A good summary. “There is no contradiction between standing with the people of Ukraine and against Russia’s heinous invasion and being honest about the hypocrisy, war crimes, and militarism of the U.S. and NATO. We have an undeniable moral responsibility to prioritize holding our own government accountable for its crimes because they are being done in our names and with our tax dollars. That does not mean we should be silent in the face of the crimes of Russia or other nations, but we do bear a specific responsibility for the acts of war committed by our own nations.” On hypocrisy: “ How many of the people with Ukrainian flag avatars on their Twitter profiles have spent days or weeks pleading for the world to stand up for ordinary Yemenis living under the hell of American bombs and Saudi warplanes? The same question applies in the case of the Palestinians who live under an  apartheid state  imposed by Israel and backed up by a sustained campaign of annihilation  supported...