A Brzezinski Gem For Your Study Group

Here's a goodie for your next study group on imperialism:

"To put it in a terminology that harkens back to a more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together."

That's Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State and general US foreign policy bigshot for the last four decades. He first said it in his 2004 Global Chessboard, but he's so fond of it that he quotes himself with evident delight in his brand new Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower.

He does so, incidentally, to rip Bush 43 for having made a complete goatfuck out of US foreign policy. The book itself is a critique of W and Clinton and Bush 41 (all three of whom Zbig is much smarter than, as he takes pains to let us know). More importantly it is intended as a salvo in a debate about what global strategy the US imperialists should adopt to replace W's hopelessly fantasist and completely failed National Security Strategy of the United States of America.

Please kick in any observations you might have on this developing debate in the ruling class in the comments section below.

h/t Rust