The "I Usta Be Somebody" Problem

The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports Mikhail Gorbachev warns the world is "on the brink of a new Cold War." Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link. I'm glad to see Gorby is consistent.

Gorbachev didn't see the end of Communism coming until it was too late to change course, now he doesn't see we are already back in the Cold War. In fact, one could argue the Cold War never ended, it just took a sabbatical before, rested and refreshed, flaring up again.

All those years Soviet Communism confronted Western Capitalism, was it really just the Russian empire confronting the U.S. coalition? Communism is mostly gone but Russian-U.S. antipathy remains vibrant.

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Since 1991, Russia has the same problem with which France suffered for the last 100 years. Namely, an inability to cope with being a former super power.

The problem manifests itself as a mismatch between a self-image formed during earlier big power years and current reduced world status. You could conceptualize militant Islam as troubled by the same issue, hence its nostalgia for a caliphate.

Oddly, the Brits haven't been much troubled by being a former big power. I wonder what underlies that difference, something cultural certainly. Treating the U.S. as their bumptious but successful offspring, feeling like our proud parent or grandparent, probably helps too.