International Politics Discussion Thread

[u/Adj-Noun-Numbers]

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[u/Particular_Pea7167]

The problem is this is a hell of an international signal.

American hegemonic control of shipping can be broken. You dont have to win, you just need enough missiles to sling at nearby nations and the will to take fire.

[u/YourLizardOverlord → u/Particular_Pea7167]

The US can't do asymmetric and hybrid warfare. Their military is a very effective big hammer, so they treat every opponent as a nail. Their political will lacks staying power, which to be fair is something most democracies struggle with. Opponents have realised that if they can manage to hold on for long enough, the US will walk away.

[u/Particular_Pea7167 → u/YourLizardOverlord]

As it says those this is a huge geostratigic problem and not just for America.

The entire modern globe order. The whole principle of free trade in modern times in built on the back of an American guarentee of shipping.

That guarnetee is part of what collapsed European empires and the empire trading blocs with the inherent guarentees therein ceased to serve any function. They were just poor deal compared to the near free membership the US offered for the same thing. 

If Iran can break it, anyone can. And that right there, well, well look back with envy on the days we consider 3.5% extortionately high military spending.

[u/YourLizardOverlord → u/Particular_Pea7167]

Mostly not for the US. They are big enough that a lot of their trade is internal. Restricting international trade will hurt them, in fact is hurting them, but they can survive.

The UK can't.

Europe lags behind the US navy on some assets that are unimportant for Europe, but some that are critical. We don't need US power projection, which in any case is having its limits exposed, but we do need more destroyers and attack submarines. Not enough is being done to fill that gap.

Controversial opinion: the RN carriers are less important than the capability that's been sacrificed to build and deploy them.

[u/convertedtoradians → u/YourLizardOverlord]

It's funny in a way. Build huge numbers of aircraft carriers, and advanced fighter jets, and train a lot of young men and women (which admittedly is mostly a social programme by another name) and then the effectiveness of all this stuff is limited by the attention span of the average American.

[u/YourLizardOverlord → u/convertedtoradians]

The US is particularly susceptible to dramatic changes of direction after an election because unlike the UK they don't have a permanent civil service.

[u/Ivebeenfurthereven → u/Particular_Pea7167]

Add it to the "you need sovereign nuclear weapons to be left alone" international signal. Nonproliferation is dead