Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, March 21

by David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

NEEDED: A POLITICS OF RELIGION HONOR AND FRATERNAL PROTECTION IN SOUTH AMERICA

Until then, study biographies to understand the dilemmas of the South - Protection, Politics, and Manhood in Mexico.

A EUROPEAN NOVEL: BEST SOURCE OF REAL NEWS ON WHAT'S HAPPENING AMIDST THE CIVILIZATIONS - ONE IS RISING AND ONE DECAYS - THIS IS NOT A CLASH BUT A REPLACEMENT 

This review of the current best-selling novel in Europe, Soumission by Michael Houellebecq, is a stunning depiction of the French version of what Whittaker Chambers called the real debate of the Cold War: shall man live without God? It isn't about the Cold War, of course, but the sequel to the Cold War - the next line of battle between those who maximize human autonomy and live without God, and those who think the goal of life is to do one's duty as a creature of God. This novel came out the day the Frenchmen were shot in the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The Right said the novel was cultural suicide. The Left called it Islamophobic. Read this review - the novel  is something very different and very needed.

BIBI WINS: CLARITY ON STATES

Prime Minister Netanyahu has been clear since his book on Israel's Place Among the Nations why a true Palestinian state on the West Bank of the Jordan is a military geographic impossibility. The states that do exist - Iran and Israel - need to be assured their right to exist, before policy aims at assembling a new state. It is no surprise that he doesn't accept a Palestinian state - the issue is his revolutionary approach to Iran. He seems to think the Shia state is fundamentally illegitimate. The nation which must be imagined and constructed is a Sunni Arab state in the contested areas of Iraq and Syria contiguous with Jordan. That is the region that ISIS is currently calling home. The "international community" insists on a Palestinian state while marginalizing the Israeli state. The Swedish government has already recognized non-existent Palestine as one of its first alternate reality acts of feminist foreign policy. One of the central conflicts in the Mideast is about legitimate states fighting tribes and religious movements. Netanyahu brings clarity to these discussions like no other nation man in the region. Though we deeply disagree with his characterization of Iran, his re-election keeps the public conversation reality-based which is the first condition for all good foreign policy.    

THE POPE AND HIS MISSION

Spiritual worldliness is reforming the world apart from the joyous message of the Gospel. To evangelize is to center the message to the poor on the reality of Christ in the Church.

  THE SWEDISH AMBITION FOR A FEMINIST FOREIGN POLICY MEETS THE SAUDIS

Sweden cancels an arms deal after the Saudis cancel a talk. Sweden is a country of 10 million and is not a member of NATO. The foreign minister seriously speaks of a feminist foreign policy, which is very important to expose to open light. Many shades of American foreign policy have come under the feminist rubric, and thus a more open advocacy of this worldview will show its relation to realism with welcome clarity. Here is another European take on Sweden's ambitions in foreign affairs.

LEBANON, A FUTURE SITE OF WAR: THINKING AHEAD ABOUT ALLIES

Syrian and Iraqi Christians flee to Lebanon. They will be protected by the enemies of ISIS - the Shiites of Hezbollah and the Maronite Christians and Sunni Lebanese who believe in their own nation. It is sad that the honest hand-wringing in America over the plight of the Mideast Christians is not matched by embracing the strategic allies who will actually act in their defense.

PIVOTING EAST: THE AUSSIES LOOK AT CHINA

Here is a practical appreciative look at how Australia's strategic role is centered first on its geographical identity as a nation of Asia.

ONE YEAR AFTER CRIMEA: A RUSSIAN UPDATE

One year after Russia's absorption of the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin has signed a treaty with the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia. This area of Georgia declared independence in the '90s but came under Russian dominance in 2008 after Georgia sought entrance into NATO. The new treaty paves the way for South Ossetia's full admission into the Russian Federation. A map of the region shows its proximity to Georgia's capital of Tbilisi and Russia's presence in the heart of Georgia. Russia has also been busy along its frontier with Europe. Recent Russian military exercises have been conducted in the Black Sea to the south, and in the Baltic and Arctic Seas in the north. While Russia has had larger military exercises in the past, this latest activity is unprecedented in its wide scope along Russia's front with NATO. Russia also has a keen eye to the Arctic north, upgrading many of its twelve fortifications along its Arctic coast. On the political front, Vladimir Putin's week-long absence came during a time of a rumored political rivalry between the FSB (the successor to the KGB) and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Meanwhile, three former US Ambassadors to Ukraine have foolishly argued that the 70th anniversary of VE Day be celebrated in Ukraine.