What will our government do about this??

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...604338,00.html

Originally Posted by samhass

What will our government do about this??

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...604338,00.html

Perhaps the USA should do nothing but watch the events.

As evidenced by the map, Norway, Greenland and Canada have first interest. How Russia responds to its three closest Arctic neighbors, and they to Russia, is the first order.

What will be interesting is how the ultra-Green folk around the world respond to Russian industrialization of a fragile area.

With the incredible wealth of natural resources in that area, I fear the further enrichment of a nation that has long wished domination over the US. IMHO.

Their government has clearly decided to reassert themselves on the world stage. Last year, they turned off the natural gas they supply to northern Europe in the winter. That didn't get a whole lot of press. Then they invaded Georgia. They wanted Georgia like a hole in the head. What they did want was to find out what would happen when they "stared down" the U.S., the EU and the UN. They won. There were statements of indignation, but no one did a thing other than pontificate. It's fair for the Russians to conclude that's all that might happen when they do something even more egregious to expand their influence.

Russia wants to provide some "thinking points" to the European countries so dependent on them when it comes to aligning with the U.S. on NATO or in the U.N. They've now turned off the gas to northern Europe again this year. In fact, I think it's "off' as I write this. They've got millions of people in northern Europe cutting wood to heat their houses and cook. Schools and businesses are closed. Russia is sending a clear and unmistakable message to those countries suggesting who they ought to be "friends with" -- and it's clearly not the U.S.A. Now their aggressiveness with regard to the Arctic. If the Russians actually do something in the Arctic and we stand by and expect Norway, Greenland, Canada and the bankrupt Iceland to do anything about it, we'll lose even more influence and power. It's not a pretty picture. We have a few other things higher on our national agenda right now, and the Russians know it.

It's pretty clear that Russia intends to re-assert itself as a world power, a position it hasn't held since the end of the Cold War almost twenty years ago. As they always have, they're conducting their foreign policy in a tough, aggressive manner. We used to call it the "Russian-style" of negotiating--with a clear winner and a clear loser, with the winner happy and the loser feeling nothing but defeat. There's no attempt to reach a consensus solution with the Russians. Their actions are filling an almost complete void of U.S. diplomacy that's existed throughout the Bush administration. Other than arm-twisting to get some "allies" to provide soldiers to fight the war in Iraq, we've done next to nothing on the diplomatic front to expand our influence and strengthen our diplomatic relationships. e posted political hacks as ambassadors to important countries and had a Secretary of State who while smart, was totally toothless in the execution of our foreign policy. It's probably fair to say that our relationships have actually been weakened in recent years as the result of our inclination to charge ahead doing what we want, not seeking or completely ignoring the desires and opinions of other countries.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with the Congress, are going to have to get the U.S. diplomatic strategies in order and crank up our own diplomatic efforts pretty quickly if we expect to counter the new Russian diplomatic strategy as well as others. Lots of countries see the opportunity to become rising world powers -- China, India, Russia and Brazil among them. We're still the only super power, but we're losing position fast. It looks like the new administration is beginning to get organized from a foreign policy point-of-view, but the question is: might it be too little too late?

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Their government has clearly decided to reassert themselves on the world stage. Last year, they turned off the natural gas they supply to northern Europe in the winter. That didn't get a whole lot of press. Then they invaded Georgia. They wanted Georgia like a hole in the head. What they did want was to find out what would happen when they "stared down" the U.S., the EU and the UN. They won. There were statements of indignation, but no one did a thing other than pontificate. It's fair for the Russians to conclude that's all that might happen when they do something even more egregious to expand their influence.

Russia wants to provide some "thinking points" to the European countries so dependent on them when it comes to aligning with the U.S. on NATO or in the U.N. They've now turned off the gas to northern Europe again this year. In fact, I think it's "off' as I write this. They've got millions of people in northern Europe cutting wood to heat their houses and cook. Schools and businesses are closed. Russia is sending a clear and unmistakable message to those countries suggesting who they ought to be "friends with" -- and it's clearly not the U.S.A. Now their aggressiveness with regard to the Arctic. If the Russians actually do something in the Arctic and we stand by and expect Norway, Greenland, Canada and the bankrupt Iceland to do anything about it, we'll lose even more influence and power. It's not a pretty picture. We have a few other things higher on our national agenda right now, and the Russians know it.

It's pretty clear that Russia intends to re-assert itself as a world power, a position it hasn't held since the end of the Cold War almost twenty years ago. As they always have, they're conducting their foreign policy in a tough, aggressive manner. We used to call it the "Russian-style" of negotiating--with a clear winner and a clear loser, with the winner happy and the loser feeling nothing but defeat. There's no attempt to reach a consensus solution with the Russians. Their actions are filling an almost complete void of U.S. diplomacy that's existed throughout the Bush administration. Other than arm-twisting to get some "allies" to provide soldiers to fight the war in Iraq, we've done next to nothing on the diplomatic front to expand our influence and strengthen our diplomatic relationships. e posted political hacks as ambassadors to important countries and had a Secretary of State who while smart, was totally toothless in the execution of our foreign policy. It's probably fair to say that our relationships have actually been weakened in recent years as the result of our inclination to charge ahead doing what we want, not seeking or completely ignoring the desires and opinions of other countries.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with the Congress, are going to have to get the U.S. diplomatic strategies in order and crank up our own diplomatic efforts pretty quickly if we expect to counter the new Russian diplomatic strategy as well as others. Lots of countries see the opportunity to become rising world powers -- China, India, Russia and Brazil among them. We're still the only super power, but we're losing position fast. It looks like the new administration is beginning to get organized from a foreign policy point-of-view, but the question is: might it be too little too late?

Ironically, the US mission has always been to have a "free world" where there are democracies and the quality-of-life for homo sapiens everywhere gets better. So, as these goals are taking place (albeit in stages) other countries have grown in their competitiveness to the US.

Sometimes what you get is not what you expected.

The U.S. is still pretty clearly the only super-power. We have a large, well-educated population, the strongest military in the world, the largest economy by far, a very high standard of living, and we're protected to a degree by oceans on both the east and west -- all positive factors in maintaining our position.

But influence doesn't happen automatically. No nation really has any "friends". Other nations an be friends or allies only so long as there's some mutual reason for doing so. Even Canada and Mexico can't automatically be counted on unless all of us work to establish a reason for our relationships. Frankly, I never thought about it in this context, but that might go a long way towards explaining why we were willing to engage in the NAFTA agreement.

There are some "rising powers" in the world. They're still a long way from being able to challenge the U.S. for super-power status, but countries like China, India, Brazil and, yes, Russia are making inroads. I think what it boils down to is for our political leaders to figure out what's in our best interest with regard to our relationships with these and other countries and begin to engage in a more proactive foreign policy than has existed under the Bush administration.

China is certainly courting both Russia and Brazil, with their wealth of natural resources. Venezuela is certainly not even a rising power, but China and Russia has made inroads in their relations with them with their sights pretty obviously set on Venezuela's huge oil reserves. In fact, Russia has some pretty capable Navy warships posted off the coast of Venezuela as we speak. I don't think they're there just for the warm weather. We should probably be reading their presence as a reason for us to figure out how to deal with Venezuela other than just calling Hugo Chavez a dangerous dictator. OK, he is that -- but how do we deal with him and his people for our benefit?

Like I've suggested, our foreign policy has to be a lot more than standing up for Israel and trying to plant democracies all over the place. Other dimensions of our foreign policy needs to be a lot more self-serving than what we've seen in the last eight years or our position in the world certainly will be challenged. As big, powerful and rich as we are, we can't continue to be successful by going it alone.

As usual, Kahuna, I could echo your thoughts on this matter. The militarism I see displayed by Russian youth responding to their "rock star" Putin is dismaying.
The gas cutoffs in Europe are very troubling. I Think Russia is asserting itself in a very dangerous and negative way with this North Pole issue. Georgia and the gas cutoffs are just the beginning stages of defiance that will only grow if unchecked and I just don't know if we have the ability to check anything right now.
Hillary and Bill had better get to hoppin'.

I dont think that Obama is for off shore drilling.