Interestingly, I just read in the local papers that Bibi has send an envoy to Russia to discuss joint interests. Israel prefers Russia continue to have a base in Syria as a counterweight to the more threatening Turkey!!!
I think one needs to distinguish between ideologically-driven imperialisms (Iran’s IRGC, Erdogan’s Turke…
Interestingly, I just read in the local papers that Bibi has send an envoy to Russia to discuss joint interests. Israel prefers Russia continue to have a base in Syria as a counterweight to the more threatening Turkey!!!
I think one needs to distinguish between ideologically-driven imperialisms (Iran’s IRGC, Erdogan’s Turkey & to a much lesser extent China where Islam & Marxism are respectively the ideologies) & power-driven imperialism (US, Russia, EU).
Since the rise of market economies, dominating territory to extract resources is no longer really important. So power imperialism in the 21st century is mostly about economic spheres of interest(we want your markets and resources inside our economic system).
Machiavelli, living in the post-Medieval era where ideological imperialism (Christian & Muslim) was fading, is still relevant for power imperialism. With these, deals can almost always be reached. Military power is almost always a projection of threats to economic interests.
By contrast, ideological driven imperialisms see “deals” as only an interim step to actual domination. Ideological imperialists are perfectly willing to work against their economic interests st least temporarily , since they are mostly focused on spreading their ideology.
In the 20th century, Marxism & then Naziism & Japanese Militarism saw the rebirth of ideological imperialism. With the end of WW2 & the fall of the Soviet Union & Maoist China, there was a brief respite. But Iran’s IRGC revolutionary Islamic ideology is a vanguard of a new type of ideological imperialism emulated on the Sunni side by ISIS. Erdogan’s Muslim Brotherhood ideology is a more conservative Sunni version perhaps more appropriate called Neo-Ottoman. Still quite dangerous. Xi in China has adopted an economic version of Marxist ideological imperialism, but it’s still more dangerous than Putin’s Russia.
One last thought: Ukraine is caught between two power imperialisms - Russia & EU. The Ukrainian people don’t face annihilation if Russia gets the upper hand. By contrast, Israel as the Jewish state in both the ideology of Iran’s & Turkey’s regimes, Israel needs to be eliminated and the Jews forcibly removed as part of their domination goals. Machiavelli is relevant in our building alliances with US & Russia, but can’t help us in our dealing eith either of these enemies.
Great analysis!
Interestingly, I just read in the local papers that Bibi has send an envoy to Russia to discuss joint interests. Israel prefers Russia continue to have a base in Syria as a counterweight to the more threatening Turkey!!!
I think one needs to distinguish between ideologically-driven imperialisms (Iran’s IRGC, Erdogan’s Turkey & to a much lesser extent China where Islam & Marxism are respectively the ideologies) & power-driven imperialism (US, Russia, EU).
Since the rise of market economies, dominating territory to extract resources is no longer really important. So power imperialism in the 21st century is mostly about economic spheres of interest(we want your markets and resources inside our economic system).
Machiavelli, living in the post-Medieval era where ideological imperialism (Christian & Muslim) was fading, is still relevant for power imperialism. With these, deals can almost always be reached. Military power is almost always a projection of threats to economic interests.
By contrast, ideological driven imperialisms see “deals” as only an interim step to actual domination. Ideological imperialists are perfectly willing to work against their economic interests st least temporarily , since they are mostly focused on spreading their ideology.
In the 20th century, Marxism & then Naziism & Japanese Militarism saw the rebirth of ideological imperialism. With the end of WW2 & the fall of the Soviet Union & Maoist China, there was a brief respite. But Iran’s IRGC revolutionary Islamic ideology is a vanguard of a new type of ideological imperialism emulated on the Sunni side by ISIS. Erdogan’s Muslim Brotherhood ideology is a more conservative Sunni version perhaps more appropriate called Neo-Ottoman. Still quite dangerous. Xi in China has adopted an economic version of Marxist ideological imperialism, but it’s still more dangerous than Putin’s Russia.
One last thought: Ukraine is caught between two power imperialisms - Russia & EU. The Ukrainian people don’t face annihilation if Russia gets the upper hand. By contrast, Israel as the Jewish state in both the ideology of Iran’s & Turkey’s regimes, Israel needs to be eliminated and the Jews forcibly removed as part of their domination goals. Machiavelli is relevant in our building alliances with US & Russia, but can’t help us in our dealing eith either of these enemies.