Must-read essay: ‘The Taiwan Catastrophe’
@AndrewSErickson, Gabriel B. Collins, & Matt Pottinger wrote this brilliant piece on what the fall of Taiwan would mean for the world - in short: a global depression & the loss of Asia’s most vibrant democracy. 1/9 foreignaffairs.com/united-states/… ‘Taiwan is ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the world’s eighth most “fully democratic” polity, ahead of every country in Asia and even the much older democracies of the [UK] and the United States.’ It has a per capita GDP above Japan & incredible gender equality. 2/9

If you watched Russian troops move into Belarus for “exercises” after surrounding Ukraine and didn’t expect the invasion we got, I really don’t know how you reached that conclusion. Troops in Belarus means Kyiv is in the crosshairs. How could it have meant anything less? 1/3 This matters because all these idiotic debates about Putin just “trying to extract concessions” (which concessions exactly?) delayed the arming of Ukrainian forces. They could’ve been in a much better position if this was taken seriously like it should have been. 2/3

‘It was one in an avalanche of precedent-shattering moves, unfolding in ministries and boardrooms from Washington to London and Brussels to Berlin.’ Brilliant piece by @kbennhold, @MarkLandler, @MatinaStevis, & many, many more. 1/4 nytimes.com/2022/03/05/wor… ‘To trace the 10-day period before and after Russia’s invasion in the worlds of geopolitics, business, culture and sports, is to see how Mr. Putin’s brazen attack made the inconceivable suddenly inevitable.’ 2/4

Flashbang Thread: Updates From the Ongoing Crackdowns in Russia & Belarus. Naturally, @navalny will be kept in jail past the date of Russia's next election on trumped up charges. We'll start with that story. There are 6 total and one podcast below. 'On August 11, the Investigative Committee -- a top law enforcement body whose chief is a close Putin ally -- announced that he has been charged with creating an organization that infringes on the rights and personal safety of citizens...' Absurd. rferl.org/a/week-in-russ…