Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
If Russia wins and is allowed to annex territory by force, then you might see other countries revert back to pre-WW2 conquest ideologies of annexing territory by force. If you want to avoid having an aggressive Germany (or France, Britain, Italy, Japan, etc...), then you need to stop Russia in their tracks now. Shifting the world order back 100 years, probably does mean the world would be a more aggressive place in general. I am not saying that it is likely any of those countries revert back, but it probably becomes less than zero if the liberal international order of not annexing countries isn't respected.
If someone really is worried about Japan or Germany re-arming, you should be more concerned about what is making that happen. Look at which countries are currently annexing territory and expanding their borders. If Russia wasn't invading Ukraine, and if China wasn't expanding in the South China Sea and threatening Taiwan, we're probably not even talking about Germany or Japan re-arming.
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the age of land based empire building in the 18th and 19th century was based on using the land to generate income/population in a pre global economy, the British Empire (ironically) proved you dont need land you need trade, the US and now China ran with this idea, it is Russia's inability to make anything and it's backwardness, pretty much nostalgia for it's old 'empire' that has caused it's expansionist habits.
Germany doesn't need to invade Poland it just needs to dominate it economically which it does, a 58% increase in exports in the last decade
Even China is less of a threat than we assume, their desire to reintegrate Tiawan isnt expansionist empire building in the way Britian conquered India, it is a desire to reunify what it sees as part of its country, beyond Tiawan it just wants to be an economically dominant force in the world like the US, it isnt planning on invading Japan or Australia, that would be ruinous to its balance of trade (of course that in itself is scary to the west)