Anti-American partnerships during WWII and the early Cold War

May 29, 2024 9:49 AM

Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking. A long historical essay by Philip Zelikow, describing the perspectives of past and present US adversaries. "Zelikow warns that the United States faces an exceptionally volatile time in global politics and that the period of maximum danger might be in the next one to three years. Adversaries can miscalculate and recalculate, and it can be difficult to fully understand internal divisions within an adversary’s government, how rival states draw their own lessons from different interpretations of history, and how they might quickly react to a new event that appears to shift power dynamics." Via Noah Smith.
posted by russilwvong (2 comments total)

If Trump wins, the global danger will evaporate because the US will enthusiastically join that Axis, not fight it.

The danger to the remaining free countries, and to domestic opposition, however, will increase dramatically.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:51 PM on May 29

Interesting, but unconvincing. I don't think his analogies hold up very well. China is antagonistic towards US military hegemony but remains a regional not existential threat, and is so economically enmeshed with the US that open conflict would be disastrous to both sides.

I'd argue that climate change is the major security threat the US faces in the near to moderate term, Russia and China are sideshows, but that doesn't play well to the foreign policy establishment I guess.
posted by Wretch729 at 9:37 AM on May 30 [1 favorite]