[Caligula]

(02-21-2013 12:26 PM)MorphineBliss Wrote:  

This one's pretty famous.

http://www.amazon.com/Clash-Civilization...ilizations

Pretty much explains the neocon strategy in the early 2000s.

edit: the book was written before 11th of september and all the wars and makes some pretty chilling predictions of what was to come.

Not really. If you want a better explanation of the neocon worldview you should read Francis Fukuyama's End of History. He argued that the triumph of liberal democracy was inevitable. The neocons took this as meaning that democratising the world by force was destined to succeed since there was no alternative. We know how that worked out.

Huntington's Clash of Civilizations cautioned about the dangers of identity politics and the tensions that they would cause between countries of different civilizations. Huntington himself opposed the Iraq War because he predicted would antagonise the Islamic world.

Funny how a lot of liberals bashed Huntington for wanting to instigate some kind of war with Islam while applauding people like Fukuyama who were calling for war in the name of spreading liberalism and enforcing unenforceable human rights.

As Burke said 'What is the use of discussing a man's abstract right to food or to medicine? The question is upon the method of procuring and administering them. In this deliberation I shall always advise to call in the aid of the farmer and the physician, rather than the professor.'

It's been the same story ever since the French revolution: every time militant liberals (neocons are in this category) undertake large-scale social engineering there is unforeseen bloodshed. They think they can keep what's good about the old order while adding all the benefits of their new revolutionary vision. It never works out that way.

Edmund Burke warned about it in the 18th century and it's still the same story being replayed today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections..._in_France

Edit - I just realised that to some people 'geopolitics' seems to refer to some underground conspiracy-theory driven view of what's going on in the world. I didn't know that and am not very interested in the rantings of self-proclaimed foreign policy experts. How the world works is much too interesting to be simplified into a bunch of agenda-driven platitudes.