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"Welcome to the era of great power stupidity."

Views expressed in this geopolitical news and analysis are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 07 March 2025, 2255 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).

 

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March 7, 2025

Hello, everyone. Today at WPR, we’re covering recent unforced errors by the U.S., Russia and China, as well as the implications of recent large-scale infrastructure projects for Africa.

But first, here’s our take on today’s top story:

A worker sets up a Syrian revolutionary flag at the entrance of the Umayyad Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Dec. 20, 2024 (AP photo by Leo Correa).

Syria: Clashes broke out yesterday in several coastal cities after fighters loyal to ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad attacked security forces. The clashes, which appear to have been coordinated, have already killed at least 70 people. The interim government in Damascus sent reinforcements to the cities of Latakia and Tartus, as well as their surrounding areas. (AP)

Our Take: The attacks by Assad loyalists mark the first major security challenge to face the interim government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. The relative calm had surprised many observers, since it seemed unlikely...

	Subscribe to WPR to read our take on today’s top story.

U.S. President Trump might be a dealmaker, but he seems most eager to spend. Specifically, he seems determined to spend all the global goodwill earned by the United States over the past 80 years.

Some will contend that this is part of a grand design to reshape the basis for U.S. power. But the true cause could well boil down to one simple and powerful force: stupidity. Or as the folk wisdom puts it, never attribute to genius or malice what can be explained by incompetence.

What’s more, it doesn’t seem that other major powers will necessarily reap benefits from Trump’s unforced errors. And this may not be because they are unwilling or unable to, but just because they seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot as well, columnist Paul Poast writes.

Welcome to the Era of Great Power Stupidity By Paul Poast The U.S. is throwing out all its goodwill while Russia and China seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot. The reason why is simple: stupidity.

*****

Last month, Burundi and Tanzania signed an agreement with two Chinese state-owned companies to construct a new railway to ports on the Tanzanian coast. At a cost of more than $2 billion, it is just the latest major infrastructure project financed by an outside power to be announced in Africa.

These days, coverage of major infrastructure projects like these are usually framed in terms of the emerging geopolitical competition for minerals, which is not necessarily inaccurate. But there is more to these developments than geopolitical competition.

Large-scale infrastructure projects built and planned across the African continent, which have attracted billions of dollars in investment in recent years, are essentially replicating colonial models of infrastructure, in turn recreating economic and trade relations—and their associated inequities—from a bygone era, Duncan Money writes.

In Africa, the Race for Critical Minerals Is Recreating Colonial Models By Duncan Money Large-scale infrastructure projects across Africa are attracting billions of dollars in investment. They’re also replicating colonial models.

Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump reversed many of the tariffs that had been imposed on Mexico and Canada earlier in the week, exempting goods traded under the broad U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement from the 25 percent levies.

This week, we asked: Is free trade a net positive for the world?

The results? 94% of respondents said “Yes,” compared to 6% who said “No.”

Read all our coverage of trade here.

Polish PM Donald Tusk said his government is preparing a plan for large-scale military training for all adult males, part of an effort to create a reserve force in response to the European security situation. Warsaw is increasingly concerned that Russia has imperial ambitions extending beyond Ukraine.

Amid a broader shift in defense strategies across Europe in response to Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, several countries are also considering reintroducing compulsory military service. However, as John Boyce wrote last year, a number of serious political, institutional and cultural obstacles to conscription suggest that it may not be such an effective panacea for military recruitment shortfalls.

Europe Is Giving Compulsory Military Service Another Look By John Boyce June 11, 2024 | The idea of reintroducing conscription is being met with opposition from virtually every corner—including the military establishment.

*****

Yesterday, a court in Germany sentenced five members of an extremist group linked to the far-right Reichsburger movement to jail for plotting a coup and planning to kidnap the country’s health minister. The trial was just one of several across Germany targeting adherents of the movement, which questions the legitimacy of the modern German state.

The eclectic membership of the Reichsburger movement and other extremist groups in Germany has led some to downplay the threat they pose. But as Alexander Clarkson wrote in 2022, at the time another group of Reichsburger coup plotters were arrested, the willingness to downplay the threat also indicates a tendency to underestimate the extent to which their anti-constitutional worldview has spread in Germany.

Germany’s ‘Comical’ Coup-Plotters Were the Tip of a Dangerous Iceberg By Alexander Clarkson Dec. 21, 2022 | It’s easy to view a recent far-right coup plot Germany as comical, but that underestimates the threat the movement poses to democracy.

*****

The Philippines and Canada have concluded talks aimed at reaching a defense agreement that will boost security ties and allow the two countries’ forces to hold larger joint exercises, including naval drills in the South China Sea. The agreement is one of several the Philippines is pursuing as it looks to diversify its defense partnerships in response to China’s growing naval assertiveness in adjacent waters. Read more in this briefing by Richard Javad Heydarian from last year.

*****

Twenty-two people were killed in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil yesterday in gun battles that authorities described as a potential territorial dispute between factions of the Los Tiguerones criminal organization. The fighting comes just weeks after President Daniel Noboa, in the midst of a reelection campaign, proposed inviting foreign troops into the country to aid in addressing the country’s fight against criminal groups. Read more in this column by James Bosworth.

More from WPR

Ulrike Franke on Germany’s defense policy shift. Frida Ghitis on U.S.-Europe ties. Eduardo Arcos on Mexico’s security strategy. Aryn Baker on the climate impact of militaries.

Read all of our latest coverage here.

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