Red not Dead said:You're pretty much on it. Japan will take the step of remilitarization someday with the US power fading out.
But:Let's not be that Naive.
The "real" (means the most capable/ potential) foe for Russia is China. Due to the immense land both countries have as territory they simply can't afford an open standoff and with Russia being "slightly" behind economically but with significant military assets. So the current situation will endure as far as the Chinese won't have any nostalgia about the land lost in the beggining of the XXth century (in favour of tzarist Russia). I do agree that the relationship between both countries has those "old couple" premises when both partners seems as much hating eachother than they need eachother.
China in naturally pressed to go towards Russia for some kind of energetical and military autonomy. Further more Russia desperately needs the chineese demographic power in order to keep it's eastern regions.
AssassinsMace said:China may be capable but does it have the aspiration? Are we going to think the Russians are dumb? Why are they arming the Chinese and why would China buy weapons systems from a "foe" who would know how they work best. And most likely China would face a nuclear counterstrike so why would they try? The fact is the Russia/China future conflict scenario over the Russian Far East was created by Tom Clancy fans when The Bear and the Dragon came out. What? No one thought of that scenario before the book came out. Doesn't bode well for American assessment of the future to come if they need an author, with the suspicion of having a ghost writer, to tell them the state of the world. The neo-cons love to spread fear to get countries on board with their plan for the world. This paranoid fictional scenario is more aimed to break the military relationship between Russia and China. I'd say the Russian/China cooperation in economic and military affairs says more about their relations than a book from a Western paranoid neo-con. The Russians are getting rich off of their relations with China and not just militarily. Japan has a difficult time dealing with the Russians because of the territorial claims they continue to make. You would more likely see Russia sell off parts of the Russian Far East like they did with Alaska but not as cheap.
Red not Dead said:No mace i do Agree with you, but historically the chinese have always had territorial clashes with tzarist Russia (with some rightful claims). And China is pressed towards greater cooperation with Russia. I was saying that if we were to look who would pose the most immediate threat in terms of geographical position, demographic evolution and world influence to Russia; China is the name. That's not aimed at demonizing China. No it would be a normal course. As history becames more cyclic China would have the chance to have it's turn of world contest as it was back in the XIII to the XVII century. It's a normal feature of the human history. There is nothing paranoidal about that. Even better like in the XVIIth the Chinese are agreeing to share the responsibility of the transition to a more dominant position to the region with it's partner, Russia.
It's not aimed at insulting you, it aimed at expressing the reality. China has awaken and now it's doeing it's math. Who would loose in the operation. Probably the USA and the West.:china:
AssassinsMace said:The common potential foe of both China and Russia is Japan. Japan still wants back large amounts of territory seized by the Soviets at the end of WWII. It's still a sticky issue between the two in diplomactic relations.