argumate:

kontextmaschine:

kontextmaschine:

One thing paying attention to how things progressed since the early 1990s is realizing how much the Israel/Palestine conflict and the PLO and The Troubles and the IRA were ultimately tied up in the Cold War, conflicts at the edge of the core American alliance structure with the potential to wedge domestic loyalties, and after the dissolution of the USSR the same intensity of feeling might be present but the apparatus to convert that into insurgent power just isn’t there anymore

I suppose when you get down to it South Africa too, it’s a thing to consider them as distinct resolutions to similar dynamics of division in national identity

now with Cold War 2.0 spinning up again, and yet,

I’m trying to figure out what an expansionistic China’s appeal is it’s selling itself with. The USSR’s outward-facing message of “rise up, downtrodden nations” worked for that in an era of decolonization, I can’t really see it being as credible or useful coming from China today. More than an appeal to the lowly within a given country they now vibe as Development! pitched to local elites of lowly countries, with reassurance they’ll be left free rein (reign?) domestically