Geopolitics
The study of how factors such as geography, economics, military capability and non-State actors affects the foreign policy of states.
All articles will require a short submission statement of 3-5 sentences.
Use the article title as the submission title. Do not editorialize the title or add your own commentary to the article title.
In this community we encourage long, in-depth submissions. Submissions should not be news articles that merely provide quick updates on current events; instead they should include background information and an explanation as to why the events they describe are occurring.
Submissions should not be about an individual country's domestic policies. Instead, they should be about relationships between different countries and/or relevant international organizations. Things like breakaway politics are permitted in this subreddit, as they are relevant to and could affect the geopolitical system.
Submissions are strongly encouraged to come from reputable sources. When posting from a lesser known source, please check whether the authors have some sort of qualification demonstrating they are knowledgeable of the subjects they discuss.
Sources that include (or solely contain) maps, statistics, or other multimedia (videos, interviews, primary sources, etc.) are permitted and even encouraged in this subreddit.
We encourage discussion and welcome anyone to pose hypotheses and ask questions. We allow self-posts.
We encourage comments to be cited.
view the rest of the comments
One thing that's worth pointing out is that Russia is at a different stage of capitalist development from the west. Russian capitalism is still largely industrial in nature. It's a very different beast from the western financialized system. Thus, the interests of Russian capitalists should be understood in their own material context and the stage of development of Russia. The system is closer to the way capitalism operated in Europe at the start of the 20th century with domestic capitalism coupled with state power.
I very much agree that the support for Russia has to be critical given that it is ultimately a capitalist state. At the same time, it is important to have a good understanding of how the system in Russia actually works to make predictions regarding of what we can expect to happen. The key point I want to highlight in that regard is that there is much more capacity in Russia for doing long term strategic planning than there is in the west. Ukraine is actually proof of that because Russia started preparing for the war all the way back in 2008, and it's the ability to carry out sustained policy over decades that allowed Russia to defeat the west in Ukraine. Similarly, I expect that Russia will take a long term strategic view in regards to its relations with the west and China.