Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Intro to ‘New Realism’


Gary H. Johnson, Jr. has sent an exclusive to SlantRight.com that I am certain will make it in some form to his AfPak Reader.

The theme of the essay is a “New Realism.” The foreign policy concept is supposed to be middle ground between allowing everything including the kitchen sink without preconditions and Right Wing Realism. The former uses Jimmy – Hamas – Carter as an example. The latter uses Neoconservatives as an example.

The New Realism’s (A Conservative’s View) primary advocates seem to be Dennis Ross (Profile from Left oriented Right Web) and Robert Baer. Johnson’s essay is kind of a critique of an article written in the Washington Post by Fareed Zakaria.

I’ll probably have to read Johnson’s essay a few times in an attempt to digest all the implications of the New Realism. Upon first glance (well maybe second glance) Zakaria appears to be a proponent of the New Realism.

Now here is the foundation of the New Realism in foreign policy: The acceptance of Iran as a Middle Eastern hegemon while using a combination of Saudi clout, European economic strength and American power in a carrot and stick scenario to counteract Middle Eastern Iranian hegemony. It sounds like a new Cold War scenario in which the West tries to fence in the Iranian National Agenda with both overt and covert agents. Russia and China will play the switch and bait game to placate their National Interests meaning sometimes supporting the West and sometimes supporting Iran. For Russia and China the bait and switch of support will be founded upon that which benefits the respective the global sub-hegemonic powers (i.e. assuming that America is still THE global hegemon).

Below is Johnson’s very loaded with geopolitical information essay.

JRH 9/29/09

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