China may be the biggest investor in the US economy, yet US is and will do everything in its strategic influence to stop and control it's rise as a global power, challenging the uni-polar world. India and China may trade up to 70 billion US Dollars mutually every year, but India would take every opportunity provided by the US, Australia and Japan to become a strategic counterweight to China to halt its rise. China as a compulsion to diversify and drive its mega economy may trade with US, India and Japan, but would avail every opportunity to increase her strategic influence through strengthening and modernizing the military. In this stranger then ever world we live in today, co-operation in trade and commerce are the key for the survival of national economies. However, competition among nation-sates is demarcated by the race of strategic influence through military strength and deployment of proxies. Proxies give the advantage to deny any ownership by a nation-state while it may effect the bilateral trade with the targeted state.
Controlling and shaping public perception through media is the tool matured to derive desired objectives over the years by both state and non-state actors. Originally started by Goebbels in the Nazi Germany, modern propaganda is now acclaimed as public relations, has reached its puberty. Telling a lie and making people believe it is much easier then giving it to them straight. This is the reality in practice by various state machinery's information and public relations outfits. There are alternative views and access to reality in the modern electronic age, but, they are termed as just that, i-e, alternative views or conspiracy theories at best. What to believe and what not to? It comes down to the official version of state's mouthpieces from where it all started. Access and control of information and information technology, holds the keys to modern International Relations in large context. In this scenario keeping trade ties alive while competing in strategic spheres are the dynamics very much in practice in state to state relationships. Such a setting also suits the capitalist based global economy being run by the global corporate system to their advantage.
Karl Marx, may very well be right, when he declares economy as the driving force behind international system, however, its the realist school of thought led by Thucydides, which made USA, the sole superpower in a world where everything sells in US dollars. Power politics leads to economic prowess. Strategic influence is the name of the race, which is essential to all nation-states economic interests, and which must continue if one needs to grow in stature hence riches. However, for the flow of capital to be directed at desired destination and keeping the global economy flowing through this capital at the same time keep the profits growing, trade ties are encouraged and kept as much as possible away from the strategic competition between states.
In this diabolical setting of modern day trade and race for strategic influence, the nation-states follow an unwritten code of conduct. Proxy wars are the most favourite way globally to settle scores. Show of military force to derive desired results is the trend. Access and use of military technology gives the strategic leverage to any nation-state in its sphere while continuing trade ties irrespective of the strategic competition between any two states is the norm accepted by major players in the international system. It's the most rare combination of "Marxism-Realism" as a theory in practice side by side where realism may have the last say. Hence, the competition for strategic influence between various states will continue. In the end economy drives the strategic might of a state, but the strategic might itself dictates the strength of that economy. The make-up of the world may be modern but anarchy still defines the international systems. This modernity is a by-product of capitalism. Where a complex mix of non-state actors keep the system up and running as such in their own benefit. In this international system all is fair but in reality couldn't be further from the truth..
Controlling and shaping public perception through media is the tool matured to derive desired objectives over the years by both state and non-state actors. Originally started by Goebbels in the Nazi Germany, modern propaganda is now acclaimed as public relations, has reached its puberty. Telling a lie and making people believe it is much easier then giving it to them straight. This is the reality in practice by various state machinery's information and public relations outfits. There are alternative views and access to reality in the modern electronic age, but, they are termed as just that, i-e, alternative views or conspiracy theories at best. What to believe and what not to? It comes down to the official version of state's mouthpieces from where it all started. Access and control of information and information technology, holds the keys to modern International Relations in large context. In this scenario keeping trade ties alive while competing in strategic spheres are the dynamics very much in practice in state to state relationships. Such a setting also suits the capitalist based global economy being run by the global corporate system to their advantage.
Karl Marx, may very well be right, when he declares economy as the driving force behind international system, however, its the realist school of thought led by Thucydides, which made USA, the sole superpower in a world where everything sells in US dollars. Power politics leads to economic prowess. Strategic influence is the name of the race, which is essential to all nation-states economic interests, and which must continue if one needs to grow in stature hence riches. However, for the flow of capital to be directed at desired destination and keeping the global economy flowing through this capital at the same time keep the profits growing, trade ties are encouraged and kept as much as possible away from the strategic competition between states.
In this diabolical setting of modern day trade and race for strategic influence, the nation-states follow an unwritten code of conduct. Proxy wars are the most favourite way globally to settle scores. Show of military force to derive desired results is the trend. Access and use of military technology gives the strategic leverage to any nation-state in its sphere while continuing trade ties irrespective of the strategic competition between any two states is the norm accepted by major players in the international system. It's the most rare combination of "Marxism-Realism" as a theory in practice side by side where realism may have the last say. Hence, the competition for strategic influence between various states will continue. In the end economy drives the strategic might of a state, but the strategic might itself dictates the strength of that economy. The make-up of the world may be modern but anarchy still defines the international systems. This modernity is a by-product of capitalism. Where a complex mix of non-state actors keep the system up and running as such in their own benefit. In this international system all is fair but in reality couldn't be further from the truth..
