... the so-called “domino effect” that led to more and more European countries opting to join the ever expanding and massive European Union. Times have changed since, and with the EU facing the Brexit challenge, the next “integration growth” cycle ... ... undertaking in this process could be directed at building a critical mass first in Eurasia via bringing together India, China, Russia within an enlarged Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO+), which forms the basis for attracting other regional blocks of the Global South in Eurasia such as ASEAN into the most extensive ...
... upon a phase of active rapprochement, which resulted in Russia’s final break with Austria and Austria’s defeat in its 1859 conflict with France.
Could we imagine such flexibility today? Could we suppose that over the course of two or three years, Russia would be capable of swapping its current partnership with China for an alliance with the United States? Or that the European Union, as it faces increasing pressure from the United States, would re-orient itself towards strategic cooperation with Moscow? Such scenarios look improbable at best and absurd at worst. Alas, the leaders of great powers today do not have the flexibility that is absolutely necessary to maintain a stable multipolar world order.
At the end of our short historical sketch, ...
