World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

This too shall pass.
Post Reply
User avatar
Alexis
Posts: 1305
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 2:47 pm

World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Alexis »

Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group political risk think-tank, has taken "a quick, informal survey around Eurasia Group (...) on power and global politics. The question: Who are the world’s most powerful people?"

The results are surprising...

Along with a few expected names at their expected place, we have:
#5- Barack Obama – Even at a time when Washington is focused almost entirely on Washington, the elected leader of the world’s most powerful and influential country carries a lot of water. The Obama administration will watch the eurozone from the sidelines and keep commitments in the Middle East to a minimum, but the United States will continue to broaden and deepen security and commercial relationships in East Asia, and Obama’s decisions on how far and how fast to move will be crucial.
Cut the obvious about "world's most powerful country", what we have is the analysts at one of the most influential think-tank placing the US president at fifth rank... assessing US influence as very much diminished even as their comment says the opposite "most influential country"!
In the past, this used to be called Lese-majesty, and it was severely punished.
#2- Vladimir Putin – In Russia’s personalized system, Putin is still the person who counts. He isn’t as popular as he used to be, and his country has no Soviet-scale clout or influence, but no one on the planet has consolidated more domestic and regional power than Putin.
Lese-majesty square two. The comment precises this ranking as partly the result of "Russia's personalized system" (albeit not the only country where identity of the leader is important), however it remains that those analysts strongly linked to Western largest political and financial centers say that Putin has consolidated more "regional power" than anybody else on the planet.

And Putin is second to... nobody:
#1- Nobody – In a G-Zero world, everyone is waiting for someone else to shoulder responsibility for the world’s toughest and most dangerous challenges. The leaders you’ll see named further down this list are preoccupied with local and regional problems and don’t have the interest and leverage needed to take on a growing list of transnational problems.
The notion of G-Zero world was coined by Bremmer, expressing current situation of all the world's leaders being preoccupied with regional issues at best, none of them raising to face the issues of humankind as a whole. Description of a massive failure of the most influential leaders to even try agreeing on any policies to face the challenges of the times...

Is not Bremmer correct?

The ball is rolling, and the world with it. America used to be the reference for a large part of the world, the SU serving as secondary counter-reference. Then America seemed to have become the global leader, the "hyperpower", the "indispensable nation" that would be the sole reference and define the future. Now fading of that reference and leadership (which had begun long time ago but was not readily apparent) leaves... "Nobody" in charge.

The world is more and more multipolar. But everybody is concerned with his particular piece of reality. No "concert of nations" has yet emerged for the most important countries / groupings to define a consistent coordinated leadership.

The ball is rolling... the ball of all nation's and people's hopes, fears, instincts, worries, knee-jerk reactions, policies blind to all but regional concerns... in face of the most serious problems than the world ever faced since WWII, and possibly for a longer time still.

The "concert of nations" will re-emerge. But not before the ball wrecks a lot of damage. And then further damage.

We human beings learn. But from our errors only.
noddy
Posts: 11318
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:09 pm

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by noddy »

not really sure their is much difference between nations that cooperate when they need to and an official cooperation with a face and symbol

adhoc alliances based on events as they happen is probably the new normal, why is that worse ?
ultracrepidarian
User avatar
Enki
Posts: 5052
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:04 pm

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Enki »

It is a multi-polar world.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
-Alexander Hamilton
Farcus

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Farcus »

I'll just wait for other posters to post. Then I'll comment on their posts.
User avatar
Enki
Posts: 5052
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:04 pm

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Enki »

noddy wrote:not really sure their is much difference between nations that cooperate when they need to and an official cooperation with a face and symbol

adhoc alliances based on events as they happen is probably the new normal, why is that worse ?
America's sole superpower status is threatened. We feel insecure if we don't have a cock that is at least twice as large as the next largest dick.

Barack Obama isn't as powerful as Putin basically because Putin's power is not reliant upon his office. One day Barack Obama will leave the office of the Presidency, and his power will drop by about 95%. Putin on the other hand won't leave the office, he'll always be pulling those strings, and his power comes from him, not from his title in the same way.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
-Alexander Hamilton
User avatar
Doc
Posts: 12561
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:10 pm

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Doc »

Enki wrote:
noddy wrote:not really sure their is much difference between nations that cooperate when they need to and an official cooperation with a face and symbol

adhoc alliances based on events as they happen is probably the new normal, why is that worse ?
America's sole superpower status is threatened. We feel insecure if we don't have a cock that is at least twice as large as the next largest dick.
Not anytime soon.
Barack Obama isn't as powerful as Putin basically because Putin's power is not reliant upon his office. One day Barack Obama will leave the office of the Presidency, and his power will drop by about 95%. Putin on the other hand won't leave the office, he'll always be pulling those strings, and his power comes from him, not from his title in the same way.
Kind of like Senators in the old South. they just kept getting elected over and over so that they could get seniority in the Senate and therefore more power to influence the nation.
"I fancied myself as some kind of god....It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.” -- George Soros
Mr. Perfect
Posts: 16973
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:35 am

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Mr. Perfect »

America's sole superpower status is over. We are disarming to the Russians and Chinese effectively. Economically everyone is just waiting for us to collapse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_START

XMkArYGKLF4
Censorship isn't necessary
User avatar
Zack Morris
Posts: 2837
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2011 8:52 am
Location: Bayside High School

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Zack Morris »

New START is a bilateral agreement and requires both Russia and the US to reduce their nuclear stockpiles.
Ibrahim
Posts: 6524
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:06 am

Re: World's 10 most powerful people... Some surprises!

Post by Ibrahim »

Doc wrote:
Enki wrote:
noddy wrote:not really sure their is much difference between nations that cooperate when they need to and an official cooperation with a face and symbol

adhoc alliances based on events as they happen is probably the new normal, why is that worse ?
America's sole superpower status is threatened. We feel insecure if we don't have a cock that is at least twice as large as the next largest dick.
Not anytime soon.
Its already over and done with.
Post Reply