Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, February 7

by David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

              THE PIVOT TO ASIA: A GREAT VISIT, A POOR SPEECH 

Jan 25, 2015, President Obama became the first US President to visit India twice in his presidency.  Meeting personally with the key Asian nationalists is one of the best ways President Obama can solidify his "pivot to the East." Their most important agreement renews American cooperation in building nuclear power plants in India. The actions of the president in coming to India's Republic Day were far more impressive than his sermon speech in which he again laid out his ideal of a gender neutral, religiously muted public life as the best road to prosperity and peace.

THE BATTLES IN UKRAINE:  THE COMMUNAL TIES IN THE EASTERN OBLASTS

Frontlines in Ukraine (January 13, 2015)

The next site of contention to draw new borders between Ukraine, the Eastern Oblasts (Provinces), and Russia is the coastal city of Mariupol. I have read at least ten stories about the city, none of them ever explaining the ethnic or language or religious affiliations of the population. Ethnically, the half million people are 48% Ukrainian and 44% Russian. It is 90% Russian-speaking. The city is a significant coastal connection between Crimea and Russia in the Eastern Donetsk Oblast between them. 

FROM THE LEFT IN GREECE -- A NEW NATIONAL FRONT AGAINST 

EURO-FINANCES

The new Greek government (with other nations to follow) has protested against the EU blaming Russia for the violence. The nations right and left are asserting themselves against the bureaucrats. Russia, meanwhile, has begun reinforcing three pivotal geopolitical frontlines: the Arctic, the Crimea, and Kaliningrad. Russia is also cultivating its friendship with the Orthodox nation of Greece. The long history of shared culture and religion binds Greece much more closely to Russia than to EU/NATO western Europe. The Greek economic and political crisis may see it look increasingly to Moscow rather than to Brussels.