Joint India Indonesian Army Exercise Garud Shakti Concludes.

[Dayuhan]

Building partners around shared interests and appreciating and balancing risks against conflict where interests diverge is simply smart business. A business I don't think the US does very well as we tend to put too much emphasis on the security model that played out during the Cold War, with the globe broke up into a couple of idologically divided camps competing against each other and for influence over the rest. We are too apt to ride an alliance or a grudge too long, and think in terms of friends and foes, rather than being more flexible, pragmatic, and interest-driven.

Arguably that was not the best model to establish post WWII either, but we did and we muddled through. Now? It continues to cast a shadow on US foreign policy and how we approach problems and relationships around the globe.

I don't think I'd call that a model that we established, more a balance that evolved... the other guys also played a major role in establishing it. It's gone now, and a new balance is still evolving, a more complicated one as it involves many points. SE Asia and the US actually represent good examples of how areas once pulled apart in cold war bipolarity can emerge in ways more driven by nations' own perception of their own interests, and how the US can interact with them as peers, rather than in a patron/client relationship.

As far as the Colour Revolution, Arab Spring etc. Now, if that is not of US’ making and it is merely happenstance, then God and Destiny is surely an American manufacture!

People eventually resist dictatorships. That trend has worked against the US - a number of dictators that the US called allies have fallen to popular uprisings - and it has also worked for the US, as dictators opposed to the US have fallen to popular uprisings. That reality is not of US manufacture.

This is the first time I've heard anyone suggest that the Arab Spring was made in the USA. Most observers seem to think the US was caught by surprise by the whole chain of events.

I would find it too simplistic to believe that ‘people got disgusted by the system’ and demanded a change!

Just one example to illustrate.

If indeed the Russians got disgusted with the system and changed, then how come Russia’s Communist Party, relegated to the political margins after the fall of the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago, has seen an astounding comeback in elections as voters rebuked Prime Minister Vladamir Putin’s 12-year reign?

Disillusionment happens. After 12 years of the new despot, the old despot becomes a figure of nostalgia. That doesn't mean the old despot wasn't thoroughly hated at the time it was deposed, it just means the new despot has taken over the central role of hate figure and target of frustration.

People demanded change then, they got what seemed to be change but turned out not to be change. Now they're demanding it again. Not so hard to understand, and there's no reason to see an American hand in any of it.