Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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I know right. The antecedents are that Russia tried a similar thing, cutting internet and power cables in the Baltics, and it didn't result in much of a response from NATO. So now China has tried the same thing in Taiwan, and it isn't getting much of a response, so hostilities keep increasing.
With Russia I think the West has come to believe that there are some bright lines that separate the conflict from a full NATO/Russia confrontation, whereas Russia doesn't believe that, and keeps finding new areas of semi covert sabotage. The danger is that by blurring declarations of war into gradients, and having ineffective deterrence, low commitments, you just waltz into continued escalation.
The situation with China isn't that far along, and in particular, trade continues. But it's trending in a similar direction. And cutting internet cables just seems so hostile to me.
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