China, America and the new Great Game

 

A British army encampment in Kandahar during the First Anglo-Afghan war (1839-42)
 © Getty Images


Which power will prevail? As in the 19th-century struggle between the UK and Russia, the answer may depend on forces beyond either’s control.

The Thucydides Trap is a nice metaphor, it may not be the best practical historical analogy for what is happening between the US and China. it has much in common with the Great Game between Britain and Russia in the 1800s.

For Britain it was about making sure that Russia did not acquire a route into India or make Afghanistan a Russian dependency. 

Rana Foroohar Financial Times 3 October 2026

https://www.ft.com/content/8869caf9-3cd1-4300-aeb3-828a4d9da4f9?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Rana Foroohar is the FT’s global business columnist and associate editor. Her book ‘Sea Change: America’s New Great Game in the Arctic’  

 

The Great Game again?

https://www.internetional.se/greatgame2008.htm

Pakistan and the new great game of Risk

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/08/pakistan-and-new-great-game-of-risk.html



Kommentarer

Skicka en kommentar

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

Niall Ferguson: The AI Boom Is a House of Cards, Tyler Cowen: Not so fast

AI is driving markets and GDP growth—but the underlying financing resembles the 19th-century railroad industry, which had its own share of crashes. Financial history can help us here. If you’re unsure if there’s an AI bubble, refer to the historian Charles Kindleberger’s five-stage model: Displacement: Some change in economic circumstances creates new and profitable opportunities for certain companies. Euphoria or overtrading: A feedback process sets in whereby rising expected profits lead to rapid growth in share prices. Mania or bubble: The prospect of easy capital gains attracts first-time investors and swindlers eager to defraud them. Distress: The insiders discern that expected profits cannot possibly justify the now-exorbitant price of the shares and begin to take profits by selling. Revulsion or discredit: As share prices fall, the outsiders stampede for the exits, causing the bubble to burst altogether. We are currently at stage 3. Niall Ferguson The Free Press 17 November 2025...
Läs mer

Cognitive blind spots

Bild
Cognitive blind spots are undermining our ability to see the world as it is, rather than as we would like it to be. At the start of the 21st century, western elites generally assumed that globalisation, democracy and the free market were self-evidently good, and would keep spreading, creating peace. N o longer.  FIS, Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, has published a manual about cognitive blind spots. 18 different cognitive biases that hamper our thinking, such as “group think” (adhering to the cosy assumptions of our tribe), “anchoring” (relying exclusively on whatever information we see first, say on social media),  “confirmation bias” (only seeing data that reinforces pre-existing views),  “mirror imaging” (assuming others think like us),  “absence of evidence” bias (failing to think about the data we lack)  and “survivorship bias” (judging data only with success stories, not failures). Gillian Tett Financial Times 2 January 2026 https://www.ft.com/content/...
Läs mer

2 juli. “How long can this bull market last?” Stefan de Vylder. Nord Stream pipelines. Balansen mellan tillgång och efterfrågan är central.

Bild
USA-börserna väntas inleda torsdagen med uppgångar. Jobbrapporten för juli visade på färre nya jobb  DI 2 juli 2026   https://www.di.se/live/klart-farre-nya-jobb-an-vantat-i-usa-Wpvy7/ Återigen sålde investerare av teknikaktier. Investerare oroas över teknikaktiers utsikter efter de stora uppgångarna tidigare i år, med tvivel kring om AI-investeringarna kommer att löna sig.  Oron driver kraftiga svängningar när handlare växelvis minskar riskerna och köper i dippar, skriver Bloomberg. https://www.di.se/live/blandat-pa-wall-street-teknikaktier-foll/ Börsen stänger upp – Saab rusade Nato planerar att ersätta sin flotta av Awacs-plan med Global Eye-övervakningsplan från Saab.  https://www.di.se/live/borsen-stanger-upp-saab-rusade/ Hur länge kan festen fortsätta? ”Ett bra tag till”, svarar Handelsbanken Global Digitals förvaltare Niklas Lundin samtidigt som han pekar ut en tydlig säljsignal.  I det stora hela ser han de senaste dagarnas nedgångar i sektorn som e...
Läs mer