The Grand Chessboard revisited

This was originally posted on Amazon in 2016, and on this blog in 2018. Note that the book under review is from 1997! I repost the review here, since it´s quite relevant...

“The Grand Chessboard” is a famous work on American geopolitical strategy, written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Published in 1997, the book argues that the United States is the “first and last” truly global empire. In order to ensure its domination, the United States must seek to dominate Eurasia, which to Brzezinski is the key to world power.

Europe should become a single super-state through the European Union, and both EU and NATO should expand all the way to Russia's Western border by including the Ukraine. Indeed, Western control of the Ukraine is central to ensure Russian compliance and is therefore non-negotiable. Russia itself should have a “democratic” government and a “free market” oriented economy, and be transformed into a loose confederation. Russia must give up its imperial ambitions as U.S. power extends all the way to Russia's “near abroad”. Turkey, which was still largely secular when the book was written, should join the EU. Brzezinski further calls for an American-Chinese alliance, while keeping the American-Japanese alliance in its present form. Interestingly, he wants a thaw in American relations with Iran. I always wondered why the U.S. is so interested in maneuver with the Islamic Republic, ostensibly an implacable enemy nation. Brzezinski clarified this: while Iran is hostile to the United States, it's equally hostile to Russia and hence de facto functions as a buffer against Russian expansion to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. This would explain a lot of things, from Iran-Contra-gate to Obama's nuclear deal.

Although Brzezinski denies it, I think it's obvious that his program is to encircle, weaken and perhaps even split the Russian Federation. Russia (“the black hole” in the author's estimation) should be contained on all sides by American allies and partners: the Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, China and Japan. This is really a continuation of the Cold War policies of the United States, now directed not against Communism but against Russia proper. But why does the old fox call the U.S. the “last” global empire? I think Brzezinski really wanted a kind of One World Government, subsuming even the United States under entirely new international structures.

Today, Brzezinski's globalist agenda is in shambles. The EU is crumbling and will probably be all gone within a decade or so. Turkey, while still insisting on EU membership, is Islamist. Russia has been resurrected under Vladimir Putin and is actively challenging the United States outside its near abroad, in Syria. In the Ukraine, the two great powers are stalemated. As for China, it has become increasingly clear that the rulers in Beijing have pulled a “long con” on the U.S. establishment. The Chinese call the shots now. The West has been destabilized by uncontrolled migrant streams and terrorism. And just this week, Donald J Trump, whose foreign policy seems to be almost the exact opposite of the proposals in “The Grand Chessboard”, was elected president of the United States. Interestingly, Brzezinski seems to have tacitly endorsed Trump by calling for closer co-operation with Russia, but it remains to be seen whether we are dealing with a “death bed conversion” or simply a chameleon-like protective coloring.

It seems Zbigniew Brzezinski has been checkmated.