WORLD ROUNDUPThe Battle for Eurasia | The Arab Spring Is in Its Death Spiral | Cold War II Is All About Geopolitics, and more
· The Bomb Was Horrifying. The Alternatives Would Have Been Worse.
Historical records show that dropping atomic bombs was the least bad option
· The Battle for Eurasia
China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass
· Canadian Reactors that “Recycle” Plutonium Would Create More Problems Than They Solve
Easy access to weapon-grade plutonium in the fuel that the reactors rely on to operate
· The Arab Spring Is in Its Death Spiral. Does the West Still Care?
The last stubborn buds of the Arab Spring have been crushed
· A New Cold War Could Be Much Worse Than the One We Remember
China is a more formidable adversary than the Soviet Union ever was, and the world is less divisible
· Chinese Deploy WZ-8 Drone to Base Within Reach of Taiwan
The unmanned aircraft can conduct strategic aerial reconnaissance across southeast Asia
· The U.S. and China Are Caught in a Technology Trap
The world’s two largest economies are walking a tightrope between bad blood and good business
· Cold War II Is All About Geopolitics
A new book overplays the domestic roots of Sino-U.S. confrontation and underestimates its geopolitical logic
The Bomb Was Horrifying. The Alternatives Would Have Been Worse. (Evan Thomas, Foreign Policy)
More than 75 years later, the reevaluation that began in 1946 goes on: When, if ever, is the use of nuclear weapons justified?
The atomic bombs not only saved many thousands and possibly millions of Japanese lives, but they also saved the lives of even more Asians beyond Japan. Under the unforgiving rule of the Imperial Japanese Army, Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Indonesians were dying at the rate of perhaps as many as 250,000 a month. Had the war dragged on, it is horrific to imagine the dystopia that would have engulfed vast areas from Manchuria to Borneo. At admittedly terrible cost, the atom bombs averted a far greater catastrophe. It is also likely that it took both atom bombs—as well as a Soviet invasion of Manchuria—to shake the Japanese military’s fanatical resolve and finally convert the emperor to the cause of peace, as well as his own self-preservation.
Possibly, one bomb was enough to persuade the emperor, but it took at least two to make the Japanese military realize that the threat of more bombs offered a face-saving excuse to surrender—a “gift from the gods.” But history has proved Secretary of War Henry Stimson right that only a strong shock could make the Japanese surrender.
The Battle for Eurasia (Hal Brands, Foreign Policy)
The war in Ukraine may have many positive outcomes: A Russia bled white by its own aggression, a United States that has rediscovered the centrality of its power and leadership, a democratic community that has been unified and energized for the dangerous years ahead. There will also be one very ominous outcome: the rise of a coalition of Eurasian autocracies linked by geographic proximity to one another and geopolitical hostility to the West. As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s folly rallies the advanced democracies, it hastens the construction of a Fortress Eurasia, manned by the free world’s enemies.
Revisionist autocracies—China, Russia, Iran, and, to a lesser degree, North Korea—aren’t simply pushing for power in their respective regions. They are forming interlocking strategic partnerships across the world’s largest landmass, and they are fostering trade and transportation networks beyond the reach of the U.S. dollar and the U.S. Navy. This isn’t, yet, a full-blown alliance of autocracies. It is, however, a bloc of adversaries more cohesive and dangerous than anything the United States has faced in decades.
