Afterall, one will never have forever friend or forever enemy, only perpetual self-interest. The coming planned visit by Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany, to China, may be reflecting Germany's latest clever and vital change of the NATO EU countries' global geopolitical stance. Today's western EU countries led by Germany-cum-France should therefore more independently keep playing their continent's traditionally-experting Balance of Power game between the US and China, in order to gain as much as possible from both conflicting sides in the new cold war that's been developing quickly between these two countries in the coming decades. Similarly, the US wants the much weakened and hence dependent NATO EU countries to fully side with her in her future cold or even hot war against China.

From China's point of view, China still wants to maintain a relatively harmonious economic and geopolitical relationship with the western EU countries, because she correctly realizes that her main enemy is the US, not the EU countries. But so far, it seems that China hasn't given much open military and economic help to Russia, as shown by the fact that Russia has had to buy her sorely-needed advanced military drones from Iran rather than from China (another reason being that China's drones are too expensive for Russia). In principle, China should have sided much more with Russia in the ongoing Ukraine War, since if Russia was defeated this time, she herself will most probably become the West's next striking target, say by the US's starting another similar and relatively cheap Asian agency war in Taiwan. Only British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey had it right in 1914: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” In Russia, Bolshevism won, and Fascism would soon follow throughout Europe.

Twenty million died, along with four great empires: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Ottoman.

Then imagine that kaisers, czars, and kings could have looked into a crystal ball and seen the world of 1918. Recall how, in 1914, the great powers stumbled into World War I. Why did they pull back, and what are the lessons for our time?

Only once did the Soviet Union and the US come close to the edge of the abyss – exactly 60 years ago during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Is he crazy? Maybe, because launching such weapons would break a 77-year-old nuclear taboo.Įver since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the unthinkable has been kept in check through some 200 conventional wars – even where nuclear powers were involved on one side or the other. HAMBURG – Hardly a day goes by without Russian President Vladimir Putin waving his nuclear bludgeon to cow Ukraine and the West.

What defcon level are we now