"Is A Country’s Strength Determined Not Only By Its" Topic

…Military And Economy, But Also By Its Resilience?

"In the COVID-19 era, a country's strength is determined not only by its military and economy, but also by its resilience. Each geopolitical age places a premium on particular forms of national power—seapower and colonial possessions prior to the world wars, nuclear weapons and alliance networks during the Cold War, soft power after the Cold War.

And the new era ushered in by COVID-19 has done so as well, revealing the salience of "resilient power": a country's capacity to absorb systemic shocks, adapt to these disruptions, and quickly bounce back from them. As the scholar Stephen Flynn once told me, the aim of resilience is to design systems not just so they can endure shocks, but also so they can "fail gracefully and recover nicely." …"

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Amicalement
Armand

Resilience is irrelevant to power projection. The Byzantine Empire lasted some 1000 years but for several hundred of those it was in a state of permanent shrinking and being pummelled by others.

Power projection is key to survival. Countries/empires are like living organisms – when they stop growing they start dying.

And much like anything, the dying are replaced by the new and growing.

The decline of the US and western civilisation also marks the end of the decline of western ideas such as equality, humanism, liberal democracy etc.

You cannot sustain such ideas if your country/civilisation is in decline and the opponent is in a state of growth.

In any case in my opinion, the US (and the EU) won't survive the 21st century. The world is shifting to Asia and Middle East for economic, ideological and political guidance. Even the Russian model is growing in appeal throughout Eastern Europe (most notably in Poland and Hungary).

The demographic changes wracking the west and conflicts arising from it will only get worse as the old western populations dwindle in numbers and new groups want a piece of the pie (and in some cases the whole pie).

When a significant amount of our population is either claiming or not upset about cries for "death to America" as well as other things--what does this say of the future?

Russ Dunaway

I agree with most of what you posted arealdeadone. However, I am a firm believer the US, UK and most of Europe will still be around thru out the 21st Century and beyond. As you posted, western ideas such as equality, humanism, liberal democracy, etc., will have to survive to advance the human race to the next level.

When a significant amount of our population is either claiming or not upset about cries for "death to America" as well as other things--what does this say of the future?

We may have a fight on our hands in our streets. But we can't give up and let this "Evil" win.

We have a lot of work ahead of us … And some blood many be spilled.

As you posted, western ideas such as equality, humanism, liberal democracy, etc., will have to survive to advance the human race to the next level.

The big issue is that those ideals don't carry as much weight now as they once did.

Even in the US commitment to democracy is waning amongst segments of the community.

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In countries like Australia or some parts of Eastern Europe, no one bats an eyelid when media gets raided for reporting on government wrong doing or political systems get subverted to stifle democracy.

Here in Australia even endemic corruption doesn't really get people riled up. There is not even a pretence of political opposition – before COVID the main opposition party had openly stated it won't oppose the government and would instead work with the government.

Democracy is being dismantled across the globe and in many places it's a complete sham.

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No empire lasted forever. Having said that, Rome wasn't built in a day and declined over centuries so don't write off western civilization just yet.

Vaguely recall some quote which goes something like this: within every society exist the seeds of its own destruction.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The big issue is that those ideals don't carry as much weight now as they once did.

Even in the US commitment to democracy is waning amongst segments of the community.

That is very true sadly …

Democracy has been retreating in the face of populist nationalism in many countries: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, Giuseppe Conte, Recep Erdogan, Nerenda Modi, Rodrigo Duterte and Joko Widodo just to name a few.