Geopolitics & Empire

Geopolitics & Empire · Elijah J. Magnier: The War in Syria is Over, What Happens Next? #092

Senior Political Risk Analyst Elijah J. Magnier discusses the end of the war in Syria and what follows as the U.S. pulls out, Syria is reintegrated into the Arab League, Russia helps consolidate Syrian sovereignty, the Kurds are left to fend for themselves, and Turkey and Israel ponder on how to move forward.

Transcript

Podcast: On this edition of Geopolitics and Empire, we interview senior political risk analyst, Elijah Magnier, who has over 30 years of experience and in depth knowledge of the Middle East. We'll be looking at the developments in Syria, and examine whether the war is really over. Why don't we start with President Trump's announcement of US withdrawal?

Podcast: This is confusing, because we know the US has had a long term plan of regime change in Syria, and just a week or two ago, an article was published describing how US forces would remain indefinitely in Syria, and then we hear Trump say that US forces are pulling out. His claim that the US has defeated ISIS is kind of silly, because in reality, it's been Syria, Russia, and Iran who were largely responsible for defeating a US sponsored ISIS, but Trump's comment is a face saving measure perhaps before a naïve US populace.

Podcast: Some people remain skeptical as to the US pulling out, what is your assessment? [spoiler]

Elijah Magnier: Yes, hi, I think from what we have seen today, and what we have seen in the last couple of weeks, it seems Trump is serious about pulling out his troops from Syria, particularly in the area that his forces are occupying in the Northeast of Syria, and that is [inaudible 00:01:27] province, and [inaudible 00:01:28], and part of [inaudible 00:01:30].

Elijah Magnier: The reaction of his defense secretary, the reaction of other diplomats like Brett McGurk, who resigned from the US establishment, was a good indication that Trump wants to go ahead and pull out of Syria. Moreover, the reaction of Turkey that was insisting on disarming the YPG Kurds that are the PKK version, Syria PKK version, that also confirm one thing, that the US can no longer protect the Kurds, and can no longer stay in that part of the country.

Elijah Magnier: Today, we saw the Syrian forces deploying two small divisions in Manbij, and particularly in an area around Arima that's a village west of Manbij that they Syrian and the Russian use to maintain an observation location in the area for over a year, and they pull out from this 20 location in the area, like Arima, Arab Hassan Kabir, [inaudible 00:02:54], Al Furat, Dandaniya, and all these villages.

Elijah Magnier: They pull out, and they pull out when Turkey attack Afrin, and they returned only three days ago, but before they have reached an agreement with the Kurds yesterday evening, late around midnight, so they have decided to send two small divisions in the city of Manbij, and the Kurds, YPG, announce their withdrawal from the city, although the Americans are still there, but the Americans can do nothing without the Kurds, because they have used the Kurds as a human shield to protect them, and the presence of 2,000, or 2,000 or a little bit more than 2,000 American troops are not enough to protect the Americans in an area that is more or less 50,000 square meters. That is more or less a third of Syria, which is exactly between 23 to 24% of the geographic Syria.

Elijah Magnier: Therefore, they need the Kurds, and if they Kurds pulled out of Manbij, there are no other forces that can protect the Americans, so, yes, my answer is Trump seems serious, now the Syrian army moved in, they put the Russian and the Syrian flag on all the position, they are regaining control of to give a strong indication to the Americans and to Turkey that now Russia is involved, and no other force will regain the force of the Syrian territory but the Syrian army.

Podcast: We're seeing other promising signs, which you have written about, that Arab investment will pour back into Syria, and that Assad will be diplomatically and politically perhaps reinstated and welcomed back, begrudgingly, with his neighbors, including the Arab league. You're right that the Sudanese president recently visited Assad, and that lays the ground work for more Arab leaders to pay tribute to Assad in 2019. We see that countries like Italy, and the UAE are, I think, reopening embassies in Syria. Does this mean, then, that operation Timber Sycamore and the regime change plan has been called off and that the war is finally over?

Elijah Magnier: Indeed, yes, the regime change plan is history now, is behind us. The integrity of Syria, regardless who is sitting on top of the country, is preserved today, and there is no more [inaudible 00:05:53] state, or Jihadists state, or a chaos in control of the [inaudible 00:06:00].

Elijah Magnier: Yes, the Arabs are returning. Sudan is a very close ally to South Arabia and to the Emirates. Sudanese forces are fighting alongside with the Emirates, and the Saudis in Yemen, and President Bashir would never dare to take a unilateral decision to reopen widely the relationship between, to open the road to the Arabs to return by his first visit to Syria after seven years of war.

Elijah Magnier: Therefore, it is with the agreement of the Arabs, and with the consent of the Americans, because they also were informed about the visit of Omar al-Bashir, and they didn't object. We saw the Emirates, they opened their embassy at the [inaudible 00:06:54] level yesterday. We see that [inaudible 00:06:57] is going to start functioning at a full state embassy in Damascus.

Elijah Magnier: There is an information that I have about the meeting between Mohammed Bin Salman and the advisor on the security issued to the President Assad, General Ali [inaudible 00:07:22] who met with Mohammed Bin Salman a few years back, and Bin Salman said his intention is not to destabilize the country, and that his support to Syria is limited to what the Americans are asking him to do, therefore he just fulfilling the commitment of the Americans to appoint where he express on the ground in Syria his lack of intention to continue supporting Jihadists when he gave up on Al Ghouta around Damascus, and [inaudible 00:08:03] that Saudi Arabia was financing.

Elijah Magnier: Today we see several thousand of [inaudible 00:08:09] are working under Turkey and no longer under the flag of Saudi Arabia, because they no longer received the support of Saudi Arabia. Yes, there is a meeting of the Arab League that's going to happen at the beginning of next year, and the Arab League will open its arms to the return of Syria back to the Arab, let's say, family, because the gun countries would like to regain some of their losses in Syria by seeing if by regaining, a real normalizing the relationship with Syria, they can push Syria a little bit far from Iran. That's an objective that I don't think they will reach, but at the other hand, Syria will be extremely happy to start a good relationship with the Arab state because Syria, Iran, and Russia, and China cannot rebuild the country, particularly when the need to reconstruct Syria is between 250 and 400 billion dollars.

Elijah Magnier: There is a need for not only Syrian hands to reconstruct the country, and not only China, Russia, Iran and those around Syria that did not declare a [inaudible 00:09:38] state objective on Syria, or did not declare war on Syria. There is a need for other countries, a rich country to come and invest in Syria, and Assad will welcome even Saudi Arabia.

Elijah Magnier: Now, the war is almost over, but we still have, as a first objective, will be for the Syrian army to eliminate ISIS along the Euphrates where the US forces were offering protection to these militants, and second need to regain control of [inaudible 00:10:18] and then to turn towards [inaudible 00:10:23].

Podcast: I'd like to get your thought on Russia's role in the Syrian conflict. This is a very, I guess, divisive topic, especially in the west, and what we try to do here on Geopolitics and Empire is look at thing without our own emotions, or preconceived notions, or biases, or ideologies getting in the way, which is why we interview people from left, right, and in between. I recently posted a political cartoon on social media, which perhaps you may have seen, a Syrian woman telling her young son not to worry, that she will be okay, meanwhile multiple knives and daggers are depicted sticking out from the backside of the woman, and country names are listed, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, USA, France, Germany, Israel, and Turkey.

Podcast: A friend of mine raised the question as to whether a Russian dagger should also be depicted, implying that Russia is responsible in some way for the Syrian conflict, or taking advantage of the conflict, but based on history and the actions taking by Russia in accordance with international law, I personally see no wrongdoing by Russia in this Syrian conflict. What is your assessment?

Elijah Magnier: Well, Russia was on the side when the war imposed on Syria started in 2011, and Russia was not yet ready to reenter the international arena, and particularly the Middle East complication, because Russia was building up it's strength, ready to face other challenges in the future that we see today, it is facing these challenges. We saw Russia did not interfere in what happened in Libya and allow the American and Europe to do whatever they want in Libya, and the result is a failed state, and a disastrous situation.

Elijah Magnier: But Russia was not in the position to interfere. In 2011, Russia, again, was not in a position to interfere in Syria, on the other hand, Russia learned from the mistakes in the major Libya, and was limiting itself, which is not little, to support Syria at the UN and prevent the Americans from attacking or from taking the illegal right from the UN to attack Syria,...

Senior Political Risk Analyst Elijah J. Magnier discusses the end of the war in Syria and what follows as the U.S. pulls out, Syria is reintegrated into the Arab League, Russia helps consolidate Syrian sovereignty, the Kurds are left to fend for themselves, and Turkey and Israel ponder on how to move forward.

Websites

https://ejmagnier.com

https://ahtribune.com

https://twitter.com/ejmalrai

Show Notes

Russia, Iran, Turkey seek deal on Syria constitutional body at UN https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/russia-iran-turkey-seek-deal-syria-constitutional-body-181218061917052.html

America’s hidden war in Syria https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/in-america-s-hidden-war-in-syria-troops-face-peril-on-many-fronts-1.560780

Trump is leaving behind a trap for Russia, Turkey and Iran in Syria https://ejmagnier.com/2018/12/24/trump-is-leaving-behind-a-trap-for-russia-turkey-and-iran-in-syria

The Kurds Have Lost The Chance to Decide Their Fate: Only Damascus Can Save Them https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/2726-damascus-save-kurds.html

Erdogan does not object to Damascus’s control over al-Hasaka: the Kurds choose between loyalty to Syria or defeat by Turkey https://ejmagnier.com/2018/12/22/erdogan-does-not-object-to-damascuss-control-over-al-hasaka-the-kurds-choose-between-loyalty-to-syria-or-defeat-by-turkey

USA announces withdrawal from the Levant: time for all parties to rethink their next move https://ejmagnier.com/2018/12/21/usa-announces-withdrawal-from-the-levant-time-for-all-parties-to-rethink-their-next-move

Burying the axe of war: the Arabs will recognise Assad, and Arab investment will help rebuild Syria https://ejmagnier.com/2018/12/19/burying-the-axe-of-war-the-arabs-will-recognise-assad-and-arab-investment-will-help-rebuild-syria

About the Guest

Elijah J. Magnier is a Senior Political Risk Analyst with over 32 years’ experience covering Europe & the Middle East. Acquiring in-depth experience, robust contacts and political knowledge in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Specialized in political assessments, strategic planning and thorough insight in political networks. Created and coordinated network of decision makers to provide key insight into the complex political developments of the Middle Eastern region. Experienced in dealing with intrinsically difficult situations in a broad spectrum of situations when interacting with leaders and fundamentalist movements in war zones and areas of growing instability.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Todd Weaver: Privacy Protection in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism #091

Founder and CEO of Purism, Todd Weaver, discusses surveillance capitalism, digital rights, and why he decided to create an entire ecosystem of computers, mobile phones, and software that provide users with nearly 100% control over their devices.

Websites

https://puri.sm

https://twitter.com/puri_sm

About the Guest

Serial entrepreneur and successful businessman, Todd has been recognized for his visionary strategy, technical leadership, and relentless drive, with more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, using, installing, and promoting Free Software. Todd has consistently predicted market directions and executed disruptive technologies in a wide range of industries, including in-store entertainment, collaborative financial solutions, and starting the first online cable company. Todd has a deep understanding of the hardware manufacturing process, and an unwavering belief for users to retain their essential freedoms via free software, making Purism (the marriage of high quality hardware and free software), his most ambitious, disruptive, and exciting venture yet.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Founder and CEO of Purism, Todd Weaver, discusses surveillance capitalism, digital rights, and why he decided to create an entire ecosystem of computers, mobile phones, and software that provide users with nearly 100% control over their devices.

Websites

https://puri.sm

https://twitter.com/puri_sm

About the Guest

Serial entrepreneur and successful businessman, Todd has been recognized for his visionary strategy, technical leadership, and relentless drive, with more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, using, installing, and promoting Free Software. Todd has consistently predicted market directions and executed disruptive technologies in a wide range of industries, including in-store entertainment, collaborative financial solutions, and starting the first online cable company. Todd has a deep understanding of the hardware manufacturing process, and an unwavering belief for users to retain their essential freedoms via free software, making Purism (the marriage of high quality hardware and free software), his most ambitious, disruptive, and exciting venture yet.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Steven Seegel: The Geographers Who Defined East Central Europe #090

Professor of History Dr. Steven Seegel discusses his book "Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe" and how famous geographers such as Isaiah Bowman or Hungarian Prime Minister Count Pál Teleki influenced maps and policy in the 20th century.

Websites

https://twitter.com/steven_seegel

http://unco.academia.edu/StevenSeegel

Books

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo27760776.html

About the Guest

Steven Seegel is Professor of Russian and European History at the University of Northern Colorado. He is the author, most recently, of Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe, which came out with University of Chicago Press in June 2018. He has also published Ukraine under Western Eyes (Harvard University Press, 2013), and Mapping Europe's Borderlands: Russian Cartography in the Age of Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2012). He has been a contributor to the fourth and fifth volumes of Chicago's international history of cartography series, and has translated over 300 entries from Russian and Polish for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, in multiple volumes, published jointly by USHMM and Indiana University Press. Professor Seegel is also a former director at Harvard of the Ukrainian Research Institute's summer exchange program.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

rofessor of History Dr. Steven Seegel discusses his book "Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe" and how famous geographers such as Isaiah Bowman or Hungarian Prime Minister Count Pál Teleki influenced maps and policy in the 20th century.

Websites

https://twitter.com/steven_seegel

http://unco.academia.edu/StevenSeegel

Books

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo27760776.html

About the Guest

Steven Seegel is Professor of Russian and European History at the University of Northern Colorado. He is the author, most recently, of Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe, which came out with University of Chicago Press in June 2018. He has also published Ukraine under Western Eyes (Harvard University Press, 2013), and Mapping Europe's Borderlands: Russian Cartography in the Age of Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2012). He has been a contributor to the fourth and fifth volumes of Chicago's international history of cartography series, and has translated over 300 entries from Russian and Polish for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, in multiple volumes, published jointly by USHMM and Indiana University Press. Professor Seegel is also a former director at Harvard of the Ukrainian Research Institute's summer exchange program.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · William Engdahl: Are the French Protests a U.S. Color Revolution & is Trump the Real Deal? #089

Strategic risk consultant and best-selling author F. William Engdahl discusses his latest book "Manifest Destiny" describing US-sponsored democratic regime change operations known as "color revolutions" which utilize civil society organizations such as USAID, Soros' Open Society Foundations, and NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). He provides his analysis on whether or not the French "Yellow Vest" revolution is sponsored by the U.S. and discusses his change of mind on whether President Trump is an authentic patriot fighting against globalism.

Transcript

Podcast:                               On this edition of geopolitics and empire, we interview strategic risk consultant and best-selling author, F. William Engdahl. We'll be talking about his latest book, Manifest Destiny, and the latest in Geopolitics, Economy War, Trump and Empire. Let's start with the main idea of your latest book, Manifest Destiny. Now, I wrote my graduate thesis on this topic of U.S. sponsored democratic regime change otherwise known as Color Revolutions about a decade ago. In my thesis, I tried to look at a color revolution that was not written much about. I looked at Mongolia in the 1990s because I spent some time there as a peace corp volunteer. I was surprised to discover the same U.S. State Department, National Endowment for Democracy NED, Soros' Open Society formula at play there that you detail in your book, Manifest Destiny. After the Soviet Union FELL, sure enough, James Baker paid a visit to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the capital. The young Mongolian named Elbegdorj who was educated in the U.S. at Harvard, just like Saakashvili, the former leader of Georgia.

Elbegdorj founded a liberty center, which Saakash really did as well in Georgia with the same name. They were both funded by Soros, NED, USAID. I documented that about Mongolia and interesting that Elbegdorj eventually became the president in 2009. In your book, Manifest Destiny, you basically look at how Washington has systematically attempted to take over nation after nation including Poland, Yugoslavia, Russia, China, Georgia, Ukraine. Could you, for listeners, describe this basic framework or template that Washington uses to take down foreign governments in a way that makes it look like Washington had nothing to do with it. [spoiler]

William Engdahl:              What happened in the 1980s, there was a whole series of congressional investigations, exposés, whistle blowers, et cetera, about the illegal activities of the CIA. Assassinations of people like Pinochet in Chile, the coup d'état against Mosaddegh in Iran, in Guatemala, Árbenz and so forth. As damage control, Reagan's head of CIA, and Will Casey, proposed a privatization of this regime change machine instead of using CIA agents on the street in civilian clothes who can be discovered and then revealed as a government operation. He said, "Let's do it through private NGOs, non-governmental organizations," and then if they're caught in some attempt in some country, we can always say, "Oh, that's private. We can't control what private foundations do. They want human rights, liberty, democracy." You allow them to work in your country. We have no ... Et cetera.

That was actually at the beginning of brilliant and very effective way to get rid of regimes that Washington didn't like. This was ruled out in one of the earliest experiments in Poland with the help of the Pope, John Paul II, who had a secret meeting with President Reagan and worked out an agreement where the pope would be informed of the CIA's activities in Poland with Solidarnosc, the trade union movement and then would appear in Poland, in the streets, and give support to the fight for liberty and freedom. Of course, ultimately led to the topelling of the communist government. Then, one by one, the communist countries in the east block, began falling down. It was financially rocked the manipulations of the U.S. with collapsing the oil price in 1986. It created that, but then what George Bush Sr, someone to my view does not deserve any kind of praise or thanks from the nation or the world for the evil that he did in his lifetime.

George Bush Sr. Worked with a group of old cronies from the CIA, CIA Old Boys, and they locked in with a very senior level of KGB Operatives, KGB Senior Officers, head of international organization and really top level guys. And they pulled off this coup notice Boris Yeltsin. Boris Yeltsin was an asset of the CIA of the Bush crop. And what they did was to not only bring down communism in the soviet union, but they brought in key economic advisors like professor Jeffrey Sachs from Harvard university and others to organize the privatization through criminal bans or today called the oligarchs, the Russian oligarchs and began looting that country to the poem. And George Soros was involved in that process. He was picking up crown jewels left and right Bush was involved, many people from the west until 1999 when it really wasn't possible to push it anymore and a nationalist faction came in [inaudible 00:06:23] that's another story.

So the book traces, why do I call it, Manifest Destiny? Well, in the 19th century, America is, as you well know, that was an ideology of empire. We have a destiny from God to essentially dominate the world. It was a very powerful inner ideology of the elite families, the powers that be in all the space 18080s, 18090s and that justified not only the Spanish American war and the acquisition of the first colony, the Philippines, but also pushing all the way toward China in the pacific and through Latin and south America and beyond. So the idea of Manifest Destiny and the book is really about how this machinery of fake democracy has been created. Fake human rights. NGOs like Open Society Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, which is US government, financed CIA controlled NGO, but it masquerades as a private freedom will have an enterprise, it's anything but that.

One of the key figures before his death was John McCain the senator from Arizona, some people say one of the most treasonous figures in the US senate in recent history. That history will have to judge but certainly not one was the white hats or one of the good guys. And he was president of the republican institute, which was an arm of the National Endowment for Democracy. He was involved in the cia coup d'etat in Ukraine in 2013, 14, directly involved along with the victoria Nuland at the state department whose husband was one of the leading neoconservatives and vice president Joe Biden never was up there and you think good wherever he went.

Podcast:                               So speaking of empire and Europe, nowadays with Trump and all this talk about NATO not paying its dues and all this back and forth that's happening. If we could kind of go back and forth in time. In your book, you describe the Europeans. So I suppose in the 1980s and 1990s that leading Europeans viewed America as a declining empire. And so they were kind of set to, I guess, replace a lIttle bit of that unilateral US world or challenge a bit of it. And at the same time we saw Saddam wanting to trade oil, not in dollars exclusively but in euros, and so the US invaded Iraq in the 1990s. And we've had on-

William Engdahl:              I'm not sure that was the only reason, but that was one of the reasons. Yeah.

Podcast:                               And we've previously interviewed Alistair Macleod of Gold Money who wrote about Chinese military analysts saying, that was one of the reasons for Yugoslavia as well to ... The war in Yugoslavia that the US also interfered in and helped stoke to kind of, I guess, delay that the EU project. I'm not sure. And so we see the US continued seemingly trying to go against the EU, whether it's Brexit or forcing the EU to just stop buying cheap Russian energy and instead to purchase expensive US gas. As well as the sanctions not allowing the EU to do business with Iran. So could you talk about that section in your book, what's going on with the EU US relationship?

William Engdahl:              Well the European Economic Community back in the 50s, the coal and steel union between France and Germany was a project encouraged not only by Winston Churchill but by the CIA and the US president to create an entity that they could better control in the cold war period and create larger markets for US exports and so forth. Well, as Europe got on its feet in the late 60s and 70s, that calculus had begun to change. Now in the period, you're talking about in the 80s and the 90s, the government shouldn't Washington were concerned that Europe not develop an independent defense pillar, but it not be after the end of the cold war, that not be its own decider of what its military and defense policy would be. That it would be dependent on NATO, which means dependent on the US. And so they quite effectively killed off the part of the master treaty of 1990 that called for a European defense pillar.

They said no, this will be called NATO and it will stay in NATO. And then the military industrial complex began creating lobbyists in Washington advocating the spreading of NATO to the East and violation of the solemn pledge that James Baker gave to Gorbachev for the unification of Germany. And so they made sure that Europe was not independent. And I think the reason for the Yugoslav war, there were several elements to it. One was, and the war was this, you probably know very well, but the war was instigated, manipulated and led by Washington, by the CIA, by the Bush administration. They submitted laws to congress. They lied about the events and for Yugoslavia and Serbia and so forth, they created a one sided narrative to while they were financing genocide essentially in Bosnia Herzegovina through Bin Ladin....

Strategic risk consultant and best-selling author F. William Engdahl discusses his latest book "Manifest Destiny" describing US-sponsored democratic regime change operations known as "color revolutions" which utilize civil society organizations such as USAID, Soros' Open Society Foundations, and NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). He provides his analysis on whether or not the French "Yellow Vest" revolution is sponsored by the U.S. and discusses his change of mind on whether President Trump is an authentic patriot fighting against globalism.

Websites

williamengdahl.com

twitter.com/EngdahlFW

Books

http://williamengdahl.com/books.php

About William Engdahl

F. William Engdahl is an award-winning geopolitical analyst, strategic risk consultant, author, professor and lecturer. He has been researching and writing about the world political scene for more than thirty years. His various books on geopolitics—the interaction between international power politics, economics and geography—have been translated into 14 foreign languages from Chinese to French, from German to Japanese.

His most recent works trace the strategies and events that led to the rise of the US as an international superpower. He describes the emergence after 1945 of an American power as a new kind of Empire not based upon sole military occupation of land, but control of vital resources. Domination was through creation of an informal empire where control of finance, of the basic food chain, of energy—above all of oil, would be the basis for what would become the greatest concentration of power in history, an American Sole Superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Born in Minnesota, William Engdahl grew up in Texas. After earning a degree in politics from Princeton University, and graduate study in comparative economics at Stockholm University, he worked as an economist and investigative freelance journalist in New York and Europe.

He has lectured on contemporary geopolitics as Visiting Professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology and delivers talks and private seminars around the world on different aspects of economics and politics with focus on political risk. He has given talks at the Ministry of Science and Technology Conference on Alternative Energy, Beijing; London Centre for Energy Policy Studies of Hon. Sheikh Zaki Yamani; Turkish-Eurasian Business Council of Istanbul, Global Investors' Forum (GIF) Montreaux Switzerland; Bank Negara Indonesia; the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies; the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Croatian Chamber of Commerce and Economics.

F. William Engdahl also contributes regularly to a number of international publications on economics and political affairs including Asia Times, FinancialSense.com, 321.gold.com, The Real News, RT.com OpEdge, RT TV, Asia Inc., GlobalResearch.com, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Foresight magazine. He has been a frequent contributor to the New York Grant'sInvestor.com, European Banker and Business Banker International, Globus in Croatia, and has been interviewed on various geopolitical topics on numerous international TV and radio programs including USA Coast-to-Coast with George Noory, Al Jazeera, CCTV and Sina.com (China), Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), and Channel 1 Russian TV.

William is a Research Associate of Michel Chossudovsky's Centre for Research on Globalization in Montreal, Canada and member of the editorial board of Eurasia magazine. He currently lives in Germany and in addition to writing and giving interviews on current events, consults as a political risk economist for various private organizations, major European banks and private investor groups. Why the "F." in F. William Engdahl? That's an interesting question.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens...

Geopolitics & Empire · Dmitry Orlov: How the Technosphere Threatens the Biosphere and our Freedoms #088

Dmitry Orlov rejoins us to discuss his book on the technosphere and how it threatens the environment or biosphere, limits our economic freedoms, and can become weaponized as a political technology. He gives some recommendations on ways to mitigate against the overarching influence of the technosphere. Transcript Podcast: Returning to the Geopolitics and Empire Podcast is author Dmitry Orlov. We'll be discussing his book, Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-sufficiency, and Freedom, which touches on ways technology or this thing known as technosphere limits our economic and political freedoms as well as threatens the biosphere and environment. I'd also like to remind listeners to subscribe to all of our social media and weekly newsletter, all of which can be found at geopoliticsandempire.com, and thank the few of you who have left a tip via Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin, and ask new listeners for continued support because it does cost a considerable amount of time, energy, and money to produce this podcast. Without further ado, thanks for coming back on, Dmitry. [spoiler] Dmitry Orlov: Thank you for inviting me. Glad to discuss this topic. Podcast: Yeah, and I purchased this book from you a year ago, and only got around to reading it recently. You put to paper succinctly a lot of thoughts I've had on this subject of the technosphere, but let's start with what is the technosphere. The term, for me, evokes different themes, such as the technocracy, the 1930s scientific dictatorship movement, which I suppose is still alive today in some form. Some people talk about the term globalism, an elite who wield technology to tighten their grip on power, perhaps private corporations who wield greater power than states, such as Silicon Valley, who, at this moment, are purging any anti-establishment voices from their online platforms. It also, the technosphere reminds me of the Belgian utopian Paul Otlet who wanted to classify the world and create some sort of world city, as well as it evokes images of science fiction dystopian literature in film, such as The Matrix. Could you tell us what is the technosphere? Dmitry Orlov: Well, what got me thinking about it initially was this thought that there are systems that human being evolve at various points that are not necessarily in their individual or group interest and that these systems behave as emergent intelligences and as agents independent of the human will, that they manipulate people as opposed to people controlling them.Probably, the first one is agriculture. It made people sicker. It bound them to the earth. It made them unable to move around as they have before, but it increased population density and allowed more powerful systems of control to develop. It gave rise to empires, whereas before, we had basically bands and tribes. That took over. Then, later on, we had the development of the financial realm and money lending, which was only made possible by agriculture and by the accumulation of harvests, of harvested wealth. Eventually, this way of handling wealth involving money and debt took over and grew out of control, so that money became this necessary evil that people required to keep people at bay.Then later on, with industrialization and especially with the development of fossil fuels, we had the full development of the technosphere, which is now a realm onto its own, an emergent intelligence that we have no chance outside of that we must allow to take priority over our own interests, even if our basic interest is just elemental survival in terms of not destroying the biosphere or what's left of the biosphere. Podcast: Just, again, to clarify that note on your definition of the technosphere. It's not any sentient being, but I suppose it can be wielded by political elites? Dmitry Orlov: Yes, well, it can be used to one's advantage or one's disadvantage, especially in large groups. For instance, you could make the fatal choice of not industrializing, and then your country will be taken over that has not made that choice, but instead has industrialized and has produced weapons of war at the industrial scale. That has happened over and over again. Attempt to not be part of the technosphere leads to failure. Another move that people can make is decouple from the global financial system. Well, that leads to revolt eventually because the global system, with all of the injustices that it creates and all of its flaws, allows people to become wealthy. People, when deprived of that ability, will revolt eventually, as has happened all over the place.People can make decisions on some scale, but in terms of pushing back against the technosphere as a whole, the project is more or less doomed to failure. We are condemned to sort of nibble away at it at the edges to make, basically, lifestyle decisions so that we're not utterly ravaged by the technosphere, but we can't banish it altogether. Podcast: You also say that a technosphere demands homogeneity, and now we're seeing all this crisis with migration in Europe and Central America where you're having people from different countries going into European countries. We have this globalization of culture where, here in Kazakhstan, where I am, the most popular restaurant is Kentucky Fried Chicken.I mean, you go to the malls here in Kazakhstan and the local food chains, when you compare, the KFCs always got this long line compared to the local food chain. What is it about this technosphere that demands a homogeneity of culture, and is the migration crisis part of this push towards making nations homogeneous? Dmitry Orlov: Well, there are a lot of reasons why these global brands are actually global, and one of them is that they cater to the least common denominator. They care to immature tastes. Children like chicken nuggets. Adult don't necessarily, but they are forced to eat chicken nuggets because that's the most universally acceptable fare. There's a lot of that to it.In terms of controlling people, the first step from the point of view of the technosphere is to standardize everyone. Instead of having an educational system that basically tries to figure out what each person's aptitude and talent is, and allow them to develop it individually, which is what produces educated individuals, instead, the effort is to, again, cater to the least common denominator.For instance, mathematics is dumbed down so that those students in the class who are least capable are able to keep up, and then the smartest students, basically, are deprived of any stimulation in learning math and lose interest. Instead of actually learning how to solve problems, people are taught to fill in circles and multiple choice test forms. That sort of thing.In terms of the migrant crisis, the effort, which again is very much in line with the interest of the technosphere to commoditize everything including human nature, is to basically posit that there is this universal humanity, and that the universal human rights can supersede just about everything else, and that everybody must be treated the same regardless of how their ancestors have lived and what they have been conditioned to excel at. Some population groups, they excel at disease tolerance, and others excel at intensive farming. Those groups are not necessarily the same. Some other are excellent at industrial work, and they are disjoint with the other two groups, but everybody is lump into the same group. Everybody has to be treated the same. Everybody is processed based on the same side of bureaucratic principles. That's the goal. Podcast: Talking about the technosphere, it reminds me a lot of something Jim Rickards, author Jim Rickards has written about systems or complexity theory. It seems like the more complex a system gets, the more fragile or precarious it becomes. Then it creates these technologies, that it create unintended consequences, which constantly need to be mitigated to prevent the entire system and biosphere as well as technosphere from collapsing. You've mentioned nuclear energy, the problems we've seen with that in Ukraine and Japan, GMOs, nanotechnology kind of reminds me of Microsoft Windows updates, which are in need of constant patching for a system that is always failing until one day it can collapse. How fragile is this technosphere itself? Dmitry Orlov: Well, it's robust in the sense that it is very difficult to stamp out or destroy, and nobody has the ability to do it. It does not have anything resembling an off switch. It will blindly march forward until something catastrophic happens, but that catastrophe is very much coded into it because although it does possess a certain kind of intelligence, an emergent intelligence, it is not a human intelligence. The technosphere, to put a too fine a point on it, is an idiot savant. It is very good at growing. Like a cancer, it's capable of growing, but just like a cancer, it is incapable of seeing whether or not it's killing its host. The technosphere specifically is completely incapable of seeing physical limits to its growth and expansion. It has absolutely no way of measuring diminishing returns, be it in oil and natural gas extraction, or using the biosphere as a sink, or any of the other problems that develop along the way.It cannot see physical limits. It is also unable to see the limits of technology. Its basic assumption is that new technology is always better than older technology, but more technology is better than less technology. Then no matter what the problem is, the solution lies in the application of even more technology, even if its technology itself that created the problem, to begin with. Podcast: To talk a bit of its influence on the biosphere, something that you've written about for a long time, the environment and climate change....

Dmitry Orlov rejoins us to discuss his book on the technosphere and how it threatens the environment or biosphere, limits our economic freedoms, and can become weaponized as a political technology. He gives some recommendations on ways to mitigate against the overarching influence of the technosphere.

Websites

https://cluborlov.blogspot.com

https://www.patreon.com/orlov

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Dmitry-Orlov/e/B001JSB23G/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1544257309&sr=8-2

About the Guest

Dmitry Orlov is a Russian-American engineer and a writer on subjects related to “potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States,” something he has called “permanent crisis”. Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production.

Orlov was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and moved to the United States at the age of 12. He has a BS in Computer Engineering and an MA in Applied Linguistics. He was an eyewitness to the collapse of the Soviet Union over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late 1980s and mid-1990s. In 2005 and 2006 Orlov wrote a number of articles comparing the collapse-preparedness of the U.S. and the Soviet Union published on small Peak Oil related sites. Orlov’s article “Closing the ‘Collapse Gap’: the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US” was very popular at EnergyBulletin.Net.

Orlov’s book Reinventing Collapse:The Soviet Example and American Prospects, published in 2008, further details his views. Discussing the book in 2009, in a piece in The New Yorker, Ben McGrath wrote that Orlov describes “superpower collapse soup” common to both the U.S. and the Soviet Union: “a severe shortfall in the production of crude oil, a worsening foreign-trade deficit, an oversized military budget, and crippling foreign debt.” Orlov told interviewer McGrath that in recent months financial professionals had begun to make up more of his audience, joining “back-to-the-land types,” “peak oilers,” and those sometimes derisively called “doomers”.

In his review of the book, commentator Thom Hartmann writes that Orlov holds that the Soviet Union hit a “soft crash” because of centralized planning in: housing, agriculture, and transportation left an infrastructure private citizens could co-opt so that no one had to pay rent or go homeless and people showed up for work, even when they were not paid. He writes that Orlov believes the U.S. will have a hard crash, more like Germany’s Weimar Republic of the 1920s.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)