History and politics are two subjects I’m not interested in and therefore I am weak in. However, in Croatia they are two subjects you just have to know something about.
Whether at the macro or the micro level history and politics are things that determine a lot and often explain why things are the way they are.
The reason I bring geopolitics up now is because of the large projects I presented in the 150000 new jobs post. Large transnational infrastructure projects like those don’t operate in a vacuum they have a geopolitical backdrop.
I’m not going to pretend to know too much about it, apart from the fact I have seen that it has a lot to do with the way things are. There are many theories and explanations.
Such as in the book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives the landmass Eurasia is considered the center of global power. The author Brzeninki writes that US geostrategy should be that no Eurasian challenger should emerge that can dominate Eurasia and thus also challenge U.S. global pre-eminence. So with that kind of mentality the US will try do what it can to make sure Russia, Germany or China don’t become the leader of Eurasia. So if some large project or partnership gives one of them an ability to become more dominating then that partnership or project needs to be undermined. Such as perhaps a gas pipeline.
Sir Halford Mackinder had a theory called Heartland Theory. His notion of geopolitics was:
Who rules Central and Eastern Europe commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island. Who rules the World-Island commands the World.
Nicholas J. Spykman had his version of Mackinder’s Heartland Theory. Which had the heartland and the rimland. The rimland was an intermediate region lying between the Heartland and the marginal sea powers.
Under Spykman’s theory, a Rimland separates the Heartland from ports that are usable throughout the year (that is, not frozen up during winter). Spykman suggested this required that attempts by Heartland nations (particularly Russia) to conquer ports in the Rimland must be prevented. Spykman modified Mackinder’s formula on the relationship between the Heartland and the Rimland (or the inner crescent), claiming that “Who controls the rimland rules Eurasia. Who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.” This theory can be traced in the origins of containment, a U.S. policy on preventing the spread of Soviet influence after World War II.
I was oblivious to things like this as I was from Australia and didn’t learn things like this in high school and later education was specialized in IT. It was about 2012 when I got involved with the Dr. Miloš projects that it somehow came up.
As usual it was a visit to my political prisoner friend. Quite often he needs something on his computer done, either fixed, installed or upgraded. While Im there I bring up certain topics about what he thinks about Croatia, the current situation etc.
Must have been some question that caused him to tell me to study the European map and Croatia and its location etc. I couldn’t figure out anything special apart from the fact we are centrally located etc.
Eventually he brought up Rimland theory to me and how it was NATO policy that Russia must never have access to a warm water port. The reason being should a major war break out Russia can be halted and blocked navally during the winter months as the water freezes up.
Thats when I realized the Cold War is not over. I remember talking to Damir Ljubičić (while he was still Australia) and Domagoj Dedić over the phone back around this time and the topic of the end of the cold war was mentioned, I recall my argument that the Cold War never ended.
To me peace is just the period you prepare for the next war. Those moves on the chessboard where players don’t take each others pieces but try to position themselves in preparation to.
I think I’ve brought up a lot of times to people that the Croatian war was partly a US and Russian proxy war. People have a go at me when I mention something like that. Seriouly think about it when it comes to Rimland theory do you think NATO would allow just any outcome? You can just imagine the black ops that were happening in the background. However, if I tell you they will kill me and then they will kill you because I told you LOL.. no seriously.
Anyway remember this concept when I go into the infrastructure projects again.
While I’m still on geopolitics. A possibly wild theory I once was told by my cousins husband back in Australia over 30 years ago was that the communists faked the end of communism. He said that one day they will make a come back. He sketched a map of Europe and said this map will one day mean something to you. It was a line dividing West Europe and East Europe. Croatia was right in the middle. For West Europe he wrote the Fourth Reich, east was the revived communists.
To me its not too far fetched. China and Russia are again acting like the communist block. The EU is looking more and more like the Fourth Reich. Eastern Europe, Russia etc still have the old guard pretending to be capitalists. Even Croatia is really run by the tehnomenadžeri. Who knows I always keep these things in the back of my mind.
Leave a Reply