Strategy Of Empire

Well, he didn't want TRUMP as POTUS either, but here we are
(Sources: reuters.com)

Certain belated realizations are continuing to take hold in the geopolitical psyche as hinted a couple of months back, with the Brazilian President now insinuating that TRUMP is (at least close to being) not just a King, but an Emperor Of The World* (which has also been explained here as probably the more appropriate form of address, in reflecting the global balance of power)

One has to acknowledge President Lula as more tuned-in to reality than many of his peers on this (though the Malaysian media has for one started to use the title too), and personally I think it is only gracious to gradually ease people into such (ex)changes. Moreover, Lula's assertion perhaps warrants a raised eyebrow given that the current Brazilian Republic was founded after military officers overthrew a well-loved Emperor by force... for trying to abolish slavery. It would be quite amusing, then, were they to eventually restore their monarchy, a trend that is in fact gathering steam in a number of countries.

The Acknowledgement of Potential Empire, note, came on the heels of some of the most explicit signals of the Team Red versus Team Blue split yet, with Team Red's BRICS+ denouncing Team Blue Amerika's additional 10% tariffs on the so-totally not-a-bloc, for their "anti-American alignment". BRICS+ founding member Brazil (who attended the first summit under a previous Lula term) has by the way been slapped with a provisional 50% tariff rate, but more on that later together with a detailed analysis of Amerika's Strategic Tariffs Gambit**.

[*Being agnostic myself, the divine prefix might be deferred.]

[**As a quick update on this move towards keeping Amerika's position as Number One, the LKYSPP professor who suggested otherwise*** has quite coincidentally stepped down as dean, just a week or so ago.]


The Genius, Amerika!

"All warfare is based on deception***. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

- Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Chapter I - Laying Plans
(or, in other words, War is a Liar Game)



They are not on the same level!
(Sources: xbato.com, npr.org)

To further establish the validity of the analogy between Liar Game and current geopolitical happenings, one might consider the two male protagonists within their respective stories; in Liar Game, Akiyama Shinichi's claim to fame before joining The Game was in parlaying his I.Q. of around 180 and a degree in psychology, to bankrupt a single MLM company, for which he was caught and spent three years in prison. This had Akiyama hailed as a genius, by the general public. In reality, Amerika's TRUMP managed to bankrupt at least 18 companies in various industries, while making billions for himself and not having to go to jail, on top of it all. There is simply no comparison, then - measured in terms of pure strategic genius, Amerika wins.

Their trajectory remains uncannily similar, despite the gulf in raw talent, with Akiyama's gambit in the Human Auction arc more or less repeated by Amerika with his universal tariffs. Here, it is instructive to note the time factor, which had not been touched on in previous posts, as we shall see!

This is indeed observed not only with the tariffs, but also with the accompanying Ukrainian proxy war - which now has had Zelensky accuse China of restricting drone supplies to Ukraine, while upping production for Team Red pals Russia. Given that China's Foreign Minister has reportedly just informed the European Union that they can't accept Russia losing against Ukraine, "because this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China", it is difficult to deny that Ukraine is sadly mostly just a pawn in a Greater Game, despite face-saving blandishments to the contrary. I mean, as Grand Strategy ploys go, this is probably as basic as it gets - but true nonetheless!

[***Such psychological games have recently been exemplified in an A.I. chess match between (Team Red's?) DeepSeek and (Team Blue's?) ChatGPT in January 2025, which had ChatGPT gaining the upper hand... before DeepSeek asserted that its pawn could move like a knight, on Move 28. And if that were not enough, DeepSeek then bluffed that ChatGPT's (actually drawn) position was lost towards the end, which OpenAI's slightly-gullible LLM agreed with, before duly surrendering. One figures this demonstration a timely commentary on "rules-based (world order) systems", and how countries try to discourage their competitors therein (i.e. by basically cheating - which I gather we will soon be seeing a lot more of, in The Greatest Game!)]

[To be continued...]