Today we learn that, ‘the White House’s top Asia official is preparing to travel to the Solomon Islands in a rare high-level visit that underscores alarm in Washington over the Pacific nation’s security pact with China’. Keeping score is a tendency of alarmists. They won’t stop asking, how many dominoes are still standing on our side? The official mind is stubborn. Over a century since the crises of Fashoda, Agadir, etc., it’s depressing to find that intelligent people continue to think in such a way. Alas, imperialism isn’t only about intemperance and arrogance. It is also, at its core, about competition. The Cold War contributed some fine elaborations on competition, popularised then as ‘game theory’. It was tricky to keep track of one’s dominoes if one meant to prevent the other side from acquiring more dominoes of its own and, at the same time, deter it from doing real harm to one’s own side, which meant, of course, racing to acquire even more dominoes for oneself. Both sides in the Cold War, counting their dominoes, claimed they were battling against an evil empire. Each side championed itself as a liberator, or as the leader of an ‘empire by invitation’. Each found one or two ‘allies and partners’ to be troublesome bedfellows. And one or two of the dominoes found themselves mixing metaphors as they played the role of puppet master. Three cheers for the new masters of the Solomon Islands! If you liked this post from Talleyrand, why not share it?
© 2022 Talleyrand Unsubscribe |