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Comment by madiathomas | Hacker News Reader

It was the next logical step for Russia after they built their own GPS and their alternative to the World Bank, the BRICS bank. Their biggest enemy has proven that they cannot be trusted and they are the ones who invented the Internet. Anytime they have a disagreement with a nation, they take their ball and go home. Like what they were doing with Huawei. I won't be surprised if China and India are working on the same kind of project.

This world needs an alternative to anything built by the USA. That way superpowers will have to go to the negotiation table on an equal footing. We don't want one bully. We need at least 5 bullies.

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Of course Russia has had its own version of GPS for decades. Those ICBMs need some way to find their destination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS

World Bank has never been important to Russia. You're right the US is dominating financial world right now which most of the world hates and its inevitable for something else to compete.

Really the world bank's role is to be the scapegoat for fiscal misrule as the lender of last resort. They may or may not be "fair" (a subjective standard) and there are legitimate things to disagree with such as assignment of debts from previous regimes but crucially they lack the power to do much. They are judges without ballifs or executioners. They wield no force but saying no to loans and telling others what they think.

If the countries could sustain themselves without credit from them then they have no need to be involved. The worst is essentially snarky comments pointing out that the current management goes against orthodoxy/still hasn't paid them back from 1977. If the country succeeds despite going against their judgement then they just look silly until either the world bank revises their conventional wisdom or they get to say "told ya so!" when the shoe drops.

Austerity may do worse than an open credit pipeline in terms of growth and human impact but there are no guarantees that the creditor wouldn't mess that up as well and solvency is required to function in their role. While nice they literally can't be an infinite credit that never needs paid back fountain.

I don't think ICBMs need glonass. They use astro and probably inertial guidance.

>> This world needs an alternative to anything built by the USA.

Be careful what you wish for - there were 5 bullies 105 years ago and we know what happened!

While I agree to some extent, historically having a hegemony of one super power is good for peace.

Nations are all bullies. To their people and externally. Without them, though, other bullies take their place. Usually, they're worse.

The way you defeat bullies isn't another bully. Just look at the record of violent revolutions going full circle over and over again. The way you destroy bullies is the same as warrior elites (generic term for nobles, head warriors of tribes, generalismons, generic because it doesn't matter). Make them irrelevant.

Wealthy warrior elites are left with terrible dilemmas with merchants. If they let merchants grow then their position slips (less elite) but the military position stays the same or grows from taxes. If they don't then their holdings become backwards and they weaken, but they retain their hold on power internally. They can try to plunder but that means war and even if successful running out of prey to hunt. Seizing territory spreads them thinner and gives more administrative burden.

Peace is really a terrible weapon of attrition against warrior elites. It forces them to stab themselves with Morton's fork repeatably.

The funny thing is that economic bullies find themselves in the same role, as they either become warrior elite literally (using force for gain) or metaphorically (using their economic clout as a cudgel) vs new challengers who themselves may render them irrelevant if they fail to innovate.

When the world had 5 bullies WW1 and 2 broke out.

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