Comments by "buddermonger2000" (@buddermonger2000) on "CaspianReport" channel.

@Fischdosepremium While not explicitly vassals, Europe largely is dependant on the USA for its trade and protection. In fact the world is dependent on its navy for protection of trade. Which means that one country currently carries the weight of the world trade system on its shoulders and makes it the de facto hegemon by being the base of the modern economic system. It is so much so that the trade language of the world is English. While yes this is in part due to the British empire and the amount of states which speak the language, it's more from the amount of businesses that the US operated around the world and being the heart of trade meaning that it would be stupid to not learn it.
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@josecipriano3048 If it can industrialize them what happens is that they get a huge base of industry and preferential trade. The goal will clearly be to integrate them to France and be an overall larger power.
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Well part of being a superpower is if you can leverage global power projection and if France can compete with the US navy in any capacity in the future then it will be a superpower. I see the US being basically being the China of the west: periods of integration with the global economy and periods of isolation. When the US integrates it is dominant during that period, much like China. China will not be a conquered power again any time in the foreseeable future and the US will similarly fit that capacity. Both have regional holds and I'm curious to see if the US will invest more in Latin America. In this context like you said I think France has the chance to really bloom in this sphere. The US is happy to let a friendly power rise and as long as the French properly integrate in Africa economically and militarily (I imagine a large expansion of the French foreign legion if they can create political allegiance which can be carried as long as the French military is the guard of these countries) then France can easily become the guardian of the eastern Mediterranean and half of Africa. I see the west Mediterranean being taken by Turkey and what's left being taken by Iran. Both are stable powers in an unstable area which have a way to unite the region and industrialize to power their dominance. So it'll be interesting to see how that develops.
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The economic and technological prowess are simply things which augment the geopolitical. Geopolitics is the source. If the US suddenly pulled out militarily and economically from the world system but still managed to be the largest economy with the most technological development then it wouldn't be a superpower anymore just an isolated state who no-one wants to mess with but also has no point in bothering. Similarly if Luxembourg suddenly managed to be the largest economy on earth and the most technologically advanced, since literally everyone around it would be able to just roll in and take it, it'd be a shrimp with no influence. Geopolitics is world power. Geopolitics is defense of your population and world order. That is what guarantees whether or not you get conquered and reduced to a region in someone else's state.
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Did anyone think Germany would intervene in Ukraine? Honestly though it'd be funny if they did and thus start world War 3.
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aa K0stic What do you think is the Russian position?
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@markmuller7962 Let me sum it up easier then: The area east of the Urals is so empty that it takes such a small amount of people to move in and simply outpopulate the native Russians and then do something like split off. Would Russians be replaced at all in their heartland? No. They would simply lose territory. But on flat grassland of the Steppe that territory is their defense and without it there are no defensible borders for the Russian heartland.
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Did he just end on the meme?
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Old ideas have a way of coming back in New capacities.
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To be fair, he's also said it's not because they'll be improving but because everyone else will be on their level
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@mark9099 If you're referring to Russia most of that rate is being grown by non-russians and the reason it's not aging faster is because their men drink themselves to death which is killing the older population.
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@hstad100 To be fair the reason it's having a difficult time is that it isn't allowed to mobilize its population and it isn't at war. It's not treating this as a war and conscripts are only allowed in defense of the homeland. Due to also weak communication and coordination it can't pull off what the US did in the middle east. But yeah realistically Russia either exists as a world power and somehow gets back on its feat to stop its demographic collapse or it becomes a rump state in the middle of the Steppe vulnerable on all sides. Russia defended itself by growing big and either it can secure its borders by re-establishing the old borders of the Soviet Union, or it loses everything East to ethnic minorities from central Asia and China leaving its Heartland even more vunerable.
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@rhalfik Honestly the only country which seems to genuinely admit it is Japan which realistically can't try to bury it due to reality hitting it too hard to ignore. Many other countries are trying to turn to immigration but their political and social systems don't really allow for very good integration and the sources of immigration are really not conducive to that such as trying to integrate Muslims into countries which have very rigid national identities and have had national churches for a very large part of their history. This is compared to countries like the United States trying to integrate Hispanics who's differences largely come from language or sect of Christianity and have had a long history of many sources of immigration and a malleable national identity.
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