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Or so it may seem.  Not sure how far the crisis in Crimea will go - or how far Russia will go with the Ukraine.  The other eastern European nations are quite concerned also about Russia.


The Middle east, of course, is standard fare.

And Iran is accusing the US of sabatoge.  Not sure what might come of that.  I don't think Israel strking Iran is off the table yet.


And China is making threatening noise in the east Pacific.

Anything left out?

"Crimean crisis" can't go anywhere because it simply doesn't exist in the real world. However, there are some internal organizational issues related to the conclusion of new contracts, formation of new government institutions, etc.

Legislative elections, for example, are planned for 14 september 2014.

The EU/UN wont do anything against Russia,at least for now,and the middle east was always "hot"

Europe

(Nato) + Ukraine VS Rebels + Russia

If Russia officially declare war against Ukraine, Nato most provably got involved. Can cause direct confrontation with USA that would result to World War 3.


Middle East

(Iran + Russia + Lebanon) + Syria VS Rebels + (Saudi Arabia + Kuwait + Sunni Countries + Possibly USA)

(Possibly USA) + Iran + Iraq VS Isis + (Saudi Arabia + Sunni Countries)


Possible war
East Asia

(Possibly Russia) + China VS Japan + Vietnam + Philippines + USA  USA has mutual defense treaty with Philippines and Japan. Direct confrontation with Japan or Philippines with China can cause World War 3.

USA + South Korea VS North Korea + China

War in the air.  Please point out a time that man did not have war in the air.  Mankind is a warlike animal and until we can grow as humans that will continue to be.

Global war on privacy, terror, drugs.

There are tons of wars going on since 2000s and before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2003%E2%80%932010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2003%E2%80%932010)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2011%E2%80%93present (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2011%E2%80%93present)
 
Also you left out the US secret wars. (and secret wars of other countries)

Not sure how far the crisis in Crimea will go - or how far Russia will go with the Ukraine.  The other eastern European nations are quite concerned also about Russia.


The Middle east, of course, is standard fare.

And Iran is accusing the US of sabatoge.  Not sure what might come of that.  I don't think Israel strking Iran is off the table yet.


And China is making threatening noise in the east Pacific.

Anything left out?

Lately, I see alot more articles in the news about various hot spots.  May just be simply just more folk writing articles - but it does seem to be more than simply that.

There was an article I read Friday where a Russian personality (TV or radio, don't remember) noted that Russia was the one country that could still wipe out the US with nuclear weapons.  Made in context of the Crimean crisis.

The notion that Putin would go "nuclear" even if we were to do something to restrain him in the Crimea is silly. Not that we are.

That said, it is possible that we are simply in one of those phases when we've got to get the heebie-jeebies out of us. It's the thing about carnivores, we have to let out aggression. As a species we've restrained ourselves pretty well over the past fifty years or so, but, the reality is that we're pressing in each other too much, resources are too few, and something's gonna give.

Not saying Putin would go nuclear (comment did not come from him, at least directly), but that such talk is even raised, in response to concerns from the West, is rather interesting.  It was from a journalist (ironically, chose to portray Russia in the best possible light).


http://news.yahoo.com/russia-turn-u-radioactive-ash-kremlin-backed-journalist-223608042--sector.html

A Kremlin-backed journalist issued a stark warning to the United States about Moscow's nuclear capabilities on Sunday as the White House threatened sanctions over Crimea's referendum on union with Russia.

"Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash," television presenter Dmitry Kiselyov said on his weekly current affairs show.

Behind him was a backdrop of a mushroom cloud following a nuclear blast.

Kiselyov was named by President Vladimir Putin in December as the head of a new state news agency whose task will be to portray Russia in the best possible light.

It is not interesting it is moronic.  It is meant to provoke fear in people who are afraid of their own shadows and will go off the deep end.

I even question whether Russia could carry through on his threat. Russian nuclear capabilities are not necessarily as high as the US, they lost a lot of warheads when the other Republics declared sovereignty, and while I'm sure they could wreck a dozen or so cities, I don't really think that they could reduce us to radioactive ash. There are no winners, but I think we are in a position where we could survive as a nation, if not as a power.

Agreed, a nuclear war would be neither beneficial for the US nor Russia. There is no profit in it, both economies would have severe damage.
In addition, the cost is much higher than the benefit. This is mainly used a fear tactic to get support for war amongst citizens.

Direct war between the superpowers is a thing of the past. All of them has realized that war by proxy is the best method. Reduces their casualty figures, as well as does less harm to their economy.  ;D

 One would hope we not find out - but again, this is not just about Russia.


China has been confrontational with its various neighbors.  The latest:

http://news.yahoo.com/china-warns-philippine-against-occupation-disputed-shoal-103341189--finance.html

China warned the Philippines on Monday to abandon a disputed shoal in the South China Sea after Manila said it planned to challenge a Chinese naval blockade of the area by sending supplies to its troops stationed there.

Last week, a senior Philippines military official said his country would send civilian supply ships to its soldiers deployed on a vessel that ran aground on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. The shoal is known in China as the Ren'ai reef and in the Philippines as Ayungin




I wonder if Iran will be more cautious about any promises made to her about getting rid of any nuclear material, etc.

But it does appear it may use the Crimean crisis to its advantage.  Unfortunately, the cartoon referred to is not in the article.

http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-ukraine-casts-pall-over-iran-nuke-talks-131541285.html

Tehran may have a new ally when Iran nuclear talks reconvene Tuesday — the Ukraine crisis. U.S.-Russian tensions over Ukraine could fray the search for consensus on what Iran needs to do to ease fears it could make atomic arms.....

Iran's Fars news agency, meanwhile, appeared to take a dig at veiled U.S. threats of military strikes if negotiations fail and Washington believes that Tehran is working on a bomb. It republished a cartoon showing President Barack Obama peering into an empty paint can marked "Red Line."

The cartoon shows a grinning Russian President Vladimir Putin walking away, with the caption: "I think you used it all on Syria."

This may be the very BEST moment for Russia, China, Iran, etc., to move against the USA while we have a VERY weak president that Americans despise. LOL, time will tell.

It is NOT as though we would fight for such a slime.

Who cares about the president? Do not be so gullible. :) Obama could act much smarter, but he simply can't do this due to absence of real power. His party membership, persona or even name doesn't matter, because he's nothing more than avatar of corporate interests... Just like all of them since JFK's death.

Russia, China, Iran.etc are not stupid enough to attack the US. An initial attack will come from the US only. But I don't think that Obama will initiate such an adventure. Let's wait for Hillary.

US is fighting too many countries at the same time.

Whoever advising the President should be shot.

China gets money/resources from both Russia and the US, war may not be in their interest. Full list of Chinese war involvement here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China)  (not a lot since 1980)

If you mean by 'move' military wise directly at us, I don't see that.  Obama may surprise you - and them.

And even with other targets, the time may not be quite right there.  That is another reason to resolve our debt  issue - it is a huge security risk, among all the other  problems we have.

The whole of Europe and the west needs to apply sanctions that will really hurt this sob and his minions.  Putin is trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union, piece by piece, with him installed as grand poobah for life. 

  Intervene militarily and it will be a bloodbath, all sides, including nuclear war with every crazy unstable country that has nukes...everyone will be drawn in, including Iran, Israel, and the rest of the ME.    Sanctions work if they're done right; look at S. Africa and the demise of apartheid. That took unity from the rest of the world, isolating and scorning them.  They got hit in the pocketbook and couldn't survive it.

yeah, not sure though that the proper sanctions will get off the ground - but yeah, a military solution would probably only make it worse.  Especially given that so many in Crimea seem actually glad to join Russia.  Maybe half of the people there, it seems, or more.

Europe seems depending on natural gas from Russia - but Russia also seems dependent on Europe - so as far as sanctions, not sure who would blink first.

Crimea is done; over.  When/if he starts seriously encroaching on Ukraine the shit's going to hit the fan, and will require some serious decision-making from the west.

I'm not sure if Ukrainians should be happy to either be part of EU nor Russia.  Cyprus is part of the European Union, but.. we all know how that went. Anyway, as for trade between Russia and Europe.

The European Union and Russia have a strong trade relationship.  EU imports from Russia are dominated by raw materials, in particular, oil (crude and refined) and gas. For these products, as well as for other important raw materials, Russia has committed in the WTO to freeze or reduce  its export duties.
The EU is the most important investor in Russia. It is estimated that up to 75% of Foreign Direct Investment stocks in Russia come from EU Member States (including Cyprus).

Source:
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/russia/ (http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/russia/)

When the agreement was signed NOBODY could imagine such a weak, paper tiger president as Obama.

It will get very interesting!

Hmmm...I mentioned the Baltic Republics and White and Blue Russias as his next targets.

I think he's grabbing too fast.

One thing Putin should remember. Security Council seats are not sacrosanct. Remember that Taiwan was exchanged for the PRC. (Just did a quick search, google has redone their search results page and I really like it, far less cluttered it seems.)
 

At the UN's founding in 1945, the five permanent members of the Security Council were the French Republic, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union. There have been two seat changes since then, although not reflected in Article 23 of the United Nations Charter as it has not been accordingly amended:
Leaders of the five permanent member states at a summit in 2000. Clockwise from front left: Chinese President Jiang Zemin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and French President Jacques Chirac.

    China's seat was originally held by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China. However, the Nationalist Government lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949. The Communist Party won control of mainland China and established the People's Republic of China. In 1971, General Assembly Resolution 2758 recognized the Government of People's Republic of China as the legal representative of China in the UN, and gave it the seat on the Security Council that had been held by the Republic of China, which was expelled from the UN altogether. Both governments still officially claim one another's territory. However, only 22 states continue to officially recognize Taiwan's sovereignty.
    After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia was recognized as the legal successor state of the Soviet Union and maintained the latter's position on the Security Council.

Additionally, France reformed its government into the French Fifth Republic in 1958, under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle. France maintained its seat as there was no change in its international status or recognition, although many of its overseas possessions eventually became independent.

The five permanent members of the Security Council were the victorious powers in World War II and have maintained the world's most powerful military forces ever since. They annually top the list of countries with the highest military expenditures; in 2011, they spent over US$1 trillion combined on defense, accounting for over 60% of global military expenditures (the U.S. alone accounting for over 40%). They are also five of the world's six largest arms exporters, along with Germany[3] and are the only nations officially recognized as "nuclear-weapon states" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), though there are other states known or believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons.The best policy that the world could take right now would be simply to say that due to the aggressive nature of Russia against Georgia, Ukraine and now Estonia, her security council seat is suspended and replaced by Brazil in the UN.

What is Russia going to do? Withdraw from the UN? Look how well that worked for her in the Korean War.

I highly doubt that Putin would consider the Baltic Republics worth losing his Security Council seat for.

Additionally, while this may seem a drastic threat, I think that we're at a critical juncture. Putin knows that he's running out of time, literally, and wants to secure as much as he can before he shuffles off the mortal coil, or is at least pushed out of the Kremlin by some younger rival.

I think that because he has no real designated successor, his removal will lead to a interregnum so to speak of five or ten years, and then we may have to go through it all over again, but by that time I think the Baltic Republics will have secured military support in strong affirmative terms from Europe, and will have probably built their own military into a shared tripartite army.

 He may indeed be grabbing fast - if the concern is has any merit.

http://news.yahoo.com/sizeable-russian-force-ukraine-border-nato-192111131.html?vp=1

Ukraine's Western-backed leaders voiced fears of an imminent Russian invasion of the industrial heartland, as NATO's top commander warned of a "very sizeable" Russian troop presence on Ukraine's eastern

The Chinese have stayed out of major wars for the last 3-4 decades (IMO, after the WW2 with the exception of the Korean war). That is why the American economy is in deep shit and the Chinese one isn't.

The Chinese are Vile. They have been raping the planet for decades.  The time will come when the communists pigs like China,Russia,North Korea,Iran and several other countries will burn in a reign of Ballistic Bliss.

Let it begin.

The funny thing is when the USSR was under communist rule it was a paper tiger.  Now that the capitalist Russians has the power to cut off its oil supply to Europe it has real power.  Just think of lives and the trillions of dollars we wasted to stop communism because communism does not work.

 Then when our goal is met and communism does fails we are now worse off.  Gee, most of the people we paid to be in our military could have gotten real jobs, made us stronger and could have been tax payers all this time instead of a drag on the economy.

 There is no danger of war, only the danger from Republicans.

I think you may see the trees of the ideology rather than the forest of the imperial state since the USSR was, in fact, a great power, with the capacity equal to our own for projecting power. However corrupt the ideology--look at our own governing philosophy in this nation--a great power is still to be respected and feared by less powers: nothing paper about that tiger reality.

It seems to me that one of the things we've missed in our recent history is the credit deserved by George H.W. Bush for managing the breakup of that imperial state so successfully. It certainly didn't HAVE to be the case that that state dissolved peacefully rather than into a series of interregional wars, into which we might have been drawn. We take for granted that "well, it collapsed"...but rarely do such collapses come off with such little bloodshed and disorder. Credit really has to go to the Connecticut Yankee Bush, (as opposed to the southern Texan Bush, aka the Smirking Chimp) for the grace and skill with which he used American prestige and power to manage the dissolution.

I do NOT believe China will make their move against the US until they have all three of their Aircraft Carriers fully operational, and their military fully trained with them and their new Stealth fighters.

Even then, I suspect they will block us out of all Asia before the begin taking Taiwan, etc.

I did say it 'seems'.  It may be more a battle of bluffs between them.

Meanwhile, it is clear that if Russia wants all of the Ukraine, Russia could take it.  I don't think all is wanted - just those areas where there are primary Russians (and are more industrialized, perhaps).  Either way, Ukraine appears to be in no shape to resist.

What might be Putin's overall strategy in this is the bigger concern for the West.

 In anticipation of broader Russian expansion, it seems, it is reported that US troops are being sent to Poland (as part of NATO), and perhaps the Baltic states also.

Whatever happens to Crimea going forward, or to the rest of the Ukraine, the administration appears to be making it clear that such expansion will not be allowed to go farther.

It could, however, also anger Russia further.


http://news.yahoo.com/us-ground-forces-sent-poland-report-says-155733017.html

Yup, Obama's near perfect weakness, and the world laughing at Obama as Putin pisses in his face, just may be what Putin needs to start a Global world war. That  will cost a huge amount of money, however, the benefit will be to reduce the number of humans with a pulse.
China has long term goals, Russia has short term goals, and Obama has erased ALL American goals.

Well, you mentiomed most of the basics.
But the are many falkland-like hot-spots betweenmany many neighbour countries.

What if I tell you that the United States is even more vile?

Sure, the Chinese are doing a lot of harm to the planet. But what about the US / EU? Per-capita CO2 emissions in the US is almost 3 times higher than that in China. Also, China has never invaded any country, after the 1959 invasion of Tibet.

The sole reason China still not invading any nation because China is sure footed. China know the consequences, it will only give America reason to conquer the whole China.

But now China has become stronger, it is now started to flex its muscle in the Pacific. In the future when China is more powerful than US it will conquer more nations than USA conquered. China will even try to conquer the World.

Again unsubstantiated rubbish. The Chinese are interested in conquering the world. But they intend to do that economically, and not politically. They seems to be more intelligent when compared to those Americans.

Your post is rubbish, you don't know what China plan is. Do you know what happens in the pacific? China has already started conquering Spratly Islands that belongs to Vietnam and Philippines, Senkaku that belongs to Japan. They already harrassing with its powerful Navy. How much more if China gain more power. Without America, I'm sure China has already conquered Vietnam and Philippines.

China has longstanding territorial disputes over all those territories. And Senkaku is currently under the defacto administration of Japan. The PLA Navy is no match for the powerful Japanese navy. So you can't say that they are harassing. Either you don't know much details about the Japanese Navy, or you are seriously overestimating the capabilities of the PLAN. 

China just recently taking the Philippine and Vietnam Islands and even using its aircraft carrier to bully this small countries. They already taken Scarborough Shoal, they are blocking the supply ship of the Filipino Navy. They demand the Filipino troops to leave the island. The island located less than 200 miles from Mainland Philippines and located more than 1500 miles away from China. This is fishing ground of the Filipinos since PreSpanish Time.

Don't think you Russians are safe from the Chinese. In the future when China is replacing USA as the sole superpower Russia will be the one of its priority to be conquered because if its natural resources. China is a Fascist country, and would not accept any nationality except Chinese. They are same like Hitler. They are waiting for the perfect time to conquer the world.

Modern day China is not going to be the aggressor in any major war. They have too much to lose economically due to the fact that they have such a large trade surplus and large amounts of foreign currency.

China also builds vastly overcapacity and their many projects would likely collapse if it needed to divert economic resources away from these projects. China could, in theory experience an economic recession in the event of War. 

I had a related topic on it here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=584031.0

By the way, today is the anniversary of the German invasion into Soviet Union. "Someone" on the Ukrainian side marked it tonight with a provocation by shelling Russian territory. The same provocations happened all along Soviet border back in 1941.

The Chinese definitely knows what are their priorities. Neither China, nor the US will mess with Russia, unless they want 90% of the world to turn in to radio-active wasteland. And that said, the US is more likely than China to attack Russia first. Especially after the 2016 elections, when Hillary Clinton will be crowned in as the president.  ;D