There are “geopolitical experts” who base their analysis using broad sweeping abstractions.
Geopolitics is the study of the effects of Earth’s geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. It is a pseudoscience of political geography” and other pseudoscientific theories of historical and geographic determinism.
Some major works and examples in this area are Zbigniew Brzezinski bookThe Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives and The Geostrategic Triad: Living with China, Europe, and Russia. The Grand Chessboard described the American triumph in the Cold War in terms of control over Eurasia: for the first time ever, a “non-Eurasian” power had emerged as a key arbiter of “Eurasian” power relations.
This kind of analysis had some uses in the late 19th century and early 20th century when there were many nearly equal “Great Powers”.
There is currently a constant prediction and expectation that the US will lose economic and military primacy. This will transition the world back to a multipolar world. This would be a World where other countries and groups matter a great deal again.
Dave Lee interviews a guy, Jacob Shapiro, who came from Stratfor. He studied the Middle East as an academic and has never been there. He got raised at Stratfor from the guy making coffee because he had some Arabic language skills.
Jacob Shapiro predicts that “Russian advantages” will most likely assert themselves and Russia wins over the next few weeks. He then predicts the Ukrainian insurgency. Jacob gives himself the out for his prediction where Ukraine successfully resists for a few more weeks and Kyiv cannot be taken.
This ignores a proper and detailed military assessment.
Russian ground forces attempting to encircle and take Kyiv began another pause to resupply and refit combat units on March 11 after failed attacks March 8-10. Russian forces also appear to be largely stalemated around Kharkiv. Russian advances from Crimea toward Mykolayiv and Zaporizhya and in the east around Donetsk and Luhansk made no progress in the last 24 hours, and Russian forces in the south face growing morale and supply issues. The Ukrainian General Staff asserted Russia has so far failed to take its territorial objectives for the war and will likely increasingly turn to strikes on civilian targets and psychological operations to undermine civilian support for the Ukrainian government. Uncoordinated and sporadic Russian offensive operations against major Ukrainian cities support the Ukrainian General Staff’s assessment that Russian forces face growing morale and supply issues and have lost the initiative. The Ukrainian General Staff stated on March 11 that Ukrainian forces are “actively defending and conducting successful counterattacks in all directions,” but did not state where reported counterattacks are occurring.
The Kremlin likely seeks to increase its combat power by drawing Belarus into the war and leveraging Syrian proxies, in addition to ongoing efforts to directly replace Russian combat losses through individual conscripts that are unlikely to be well-enough trained or motivated to generate effective new combat power.
The mess, delayed attacks and long and bloody struggle scenario for Russia is not a “maybe it happens over the next few weeks”. This scenario has been happening for the most of the 16 days of the invasion so far. Modern sieges of large cities tend to average eight months or more. Kyiv has not been uncircled and Kharkiv has not fallen. Russian being unable to take and secure more of the smaller cities and towns means they cannot concentrate forces for the major cities.
Russia has not established air superiority. Ukraine’s MIGs are still flying. Ukraine has 17000 Javelin missiles and over 2500 Stinger missiles. Russia will not be able to risk its air force using it as a major tool against Ukraine.
Russia is not overmatching Ukraine’s ground forces. Russia’s Navy has launched some cruise missiles at Ukraine’s cities. However, the 8 missile launching ships in the Black Sea fleet are not a major part of this war.
The Crimean War 2014-2022 has involved about 20,000 military Russia forces vs 20000 Ukrainian forces. Those bogged down into a modernized version of World War 1 trench warfare. There have been a total of about 50,000 civilian and military casualities in that “lower intensitty” conflict. The current Russia-Ukraine war is about ten times the forces on both sides.
A ground force war with Ukraine getting other weapons and Russia with logistical problems and no air dominance is a long and bloody war.
Jacob Shapiro then makes the prediction that a few weeks of a stalement but bloody war situation will mean Putin could lose power and would go for a peace settlement. Peace-Cease fire could happen but the best window is before the urban fighting gets really bad. It is unclear if Ukraine and Russia would be willing to agree. The terms that would seem to be possible would be Russia officially taking Crimea and the Donbass and withdrawing elsewhere. Ukraine would say they would remain neutral. Ukraine will not disarm.
Here are some Stratfor predictions from 2015-2025.
* Russia will collapse
* Japan will be Asia’s rising naval power.
* China’s growth and production increases stall. This will lead to 16 mini-China’s with more growth and manufacturing: Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia could see improving economic fortunes over the next decade as more manufacturing jobs arrive.
* US power will decline
SOURCES- Metaculus, Business Insider, Dave Lee
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
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