Control Freaks

There's lots of interesting analysis of international affairs around today on the web. Paul Rogers at openDemocracy has another excellent post on the mind set that our leaders bring to military matters and international relations. He points out that despite the latest noises that might indicate some re-thinking going on in the White House (see this post below), there is no real indication that the current policies will change. In fact, the new National Space Policy is more of the same, it requires unilateral control of space by the US. This 'control at all costs' mind set is the bottom line that excludes any change in policy in Iraq and the world.
Meanwhile, over at the Asia Times there is a two part article (Part 1, Part 2) on the strategies being pursued by Russia and especially China to counter the threat that US unilateralism poses to them. The control at all costs strategy, exemplified by the string of bases in Central Asia, has resulted in going from two regimes that fight border skirmishes with each other, to two nuclear powers that have a unified strategy of energy cooperation, defense coordination and resistance to US international policies.