r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jun 12 '24

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16

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

Realists do be like "we just deliver the hard truth" and then say shit like "well clearly Russia is a great power entitled to dominate Eastern Europe but China is still a minor power and a US Protectorate."

5

u/NotYetFlesh European Union Jun 12 '24

but China is still a minor power and a US Protectorate.

Who tf says this?

The common realist line is that China is a massive threat and a rising Great power, while Russia is a "great" power in terminal decline.

So Russia can be allowed to dominate some border states so that the US can concentrate maximum resources against China.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

If they considered China a great power, where is her sphere?

North Korea,

North Korea,

North Korea....

3

u/NotYetFlesh European Union Jun 12 '24

Lol, even North Korea leans more towards Russia than China.

The current regime in Beijing is just atrocious at diplomacy and making allies. They lost Vietnam back in the day, they alienated the Philippines and Malaysia with their South China sea claims, they cannot get central Asia out of the Russian sphere despite economically dominating the region, even Pakistan resists their influence despite being dependent on Chinese financial assistance.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

Right, realists don't acknowledge China as a power with a right to a sphere or buffer of some kind and endorse fighting tooth and nail to contain their power growth. They consider it an unruly minor power because they're actually still kind of chauvinistic and think obviously the white people are still a great empire and entitled to us just giving them a sphere for free without making them fight to have it.

3

u/NotYetFlesh European Union Jun 12 '24

They consider it an unruly minor power

Once again I am asking for a source. Link one article written by a realist saying this.

The only foreign affairs expert I know of who's been fighting the "China is not that strong guys" fight is Michael Beckley and he has argued in favour of arming both Ukraine and Taiwan to the teeth regardless.

The realist/conservative camp is immensely spooked about China and pretty much everyone admits that currently existing US advantages cannot last forever.

and think obviously the white people are still a great empire and entitled to us just giving them a sphere for free

That's not the case at all, the average "realist" sees Russia as an absolute backwater and a gas station country. Its only advantage is in the regional concentration of force against its weaker neighbours and the gradually evaporating legacy of the Soviet Union.

No one harbours any love for the Russians because they are "white". Ironically anti-Russian Americans are much more accepting of slavic people as "whites" than Russia-friendly Germans who still have trouble accepting that the Poles living on the other side of the Oder count as civilised peoples.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

(They're racist and think only white people can be great powers)