European weakness is thus not a passing fad; it appears to be a long-term secular decline from both a strategic and an economic perspective. Their sclerotic global standing is but a result of socialist policies that have helped push the best and brightest away from the region, leaving in their stead a bunch of subsidy grabbers and welfare cheats. Flush with commodity wealth, both the Russians and the Arabs may be eyeing Europe for their expansionist policies. Thankfully for the Europeans, the latter group cannot muster anything more threatening than a bunch of camels at this point; at some stage in the next 20 years though that condition will change, especially if both Turkey and Pakistan are fully inducted into the fighting forces of the Wahhabi clans.

For now, that leaves Europeans contemplating coexistence with an increasingly belligerent Russia. With its economy doing rather well from the rise in oil prices as well as ongoing industrial development, Russia is putting itself in a position of strength. Unlike the sleepy bureaucrats in Brussels, the Russians probably recognize the above strategic positioning, particularly with regard to the Middle East; thus whatever is happening in Georgia and which could follow in Ukraine appears part of a well-thought-out strategy.

As I chart the “progress” of the world towards a World War III situation, it is not surprising that one of the preconditions of such an event - the emergence of a dominant consolidator of power in Europe - should now be happening, albeit from a source long thought dead in strategic terms. A Russia that takes on the mantle of empire in Europe has more in common with the US than it does with China or the Middle East over the long term.

(Dr. Benny Peiser)