Book review: Kaput: The End of the German Miracle

According to former Financial Times’ journalist, Wolfgang Münchau, Germany’s economy would be Kaput.

How could that be?  After all, Germany has long been a world champion in manufacturing, especially for motor vehicles, chemicals, and machine equipment, and Europe’s leading economy.


“Speicherstadt” District in Hamburg, Germany.
Photo by Claudio Testa on Unsplash

What is a harmonious society, anyway?

What is a harmonious society, anyway?

1. What is a “harmonious society”

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia – Harmonious Society

The Harmonious Society is a socioeconomic concept in China that is recognized as a response to the increasing alleged social injustice and inequality emerging in mainland Chinese society as a result of unchecked economic growth, which has led to social conflict. The governing philosophy has therefore shifted around economic growth to overall societal balance and harmony.[1] Along with a moderately prosperous society, it was set to be one of the national goals for the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The concept of social harmony dates back to ancient China, to the time of Confucius. As a result, the philosophy has also been characterized as a form of New Confucianism. In modern times, it developed into a key feature of CCP general secretary Hu Jintao‘s signature ideology of the Scientific Outlook on Development developed in the mid-2000s, being re-introduced by the Hu–Wen Administration during the 10th National People’s Congress.

The Three New Kingdoms

The Three New Kingdoms

By “three new kingdoms,” I mean America, China, and Russia. I call them the “three new kingdoms” because of their striking resemblance to the “three kingdoms” in ancient China.

The three new kingdoms have been fighting against one another since 1945 and will continue to do so in the coming decades.

Book Review: ‘Who Will Defend Europe? An Awakened Russia and a Sleeping Continent’

Despite frequent US calls to lift defence spending, most of NATO’s European members pocketed a ‘peace dividend’ in recent years by reducing their armed forces and defence industries. They imagined that war would never return to Europe and that, in any event, they could rely on the US to ensure their national security.

Both of these assumptions were illusory, as Keir Giles argues in a new book, Who Will Defend Europe? Giles is a senior fellow at Chatham House and Director of the Conflict Studies Research Centre. He has been a very active and prescient analyst of Russia, especially since the invasion of Ukraine, notably through his books Moscow Rules and Russia’s War on Everybody.