On the one hand, hooray for supporting the development of infrastructure in Africa and stuff. On the other hand, booooo for being a top trading partner with the Zionist Entity, and selling drones to Indonesia, and all that.

So what the Hell do you make of it all! Like I get that there's this term called "realpolitik" which is somehow relevant, but I'd like a longer explanation than just one word. Like how does the good and the bad fit together at its core?

You could certainly write tomes about this topic — many people have done exactly that — and maybe I'm being a bit incurious to expect someone to serve me a quick answer on a silver platter instead of diving into as many articles and PDF books as I can get my hands on... But I'm also just kind of tired of having such extremely underdeveloped views on the most populous AES state and country in general, after I came to unlearn or mistrust whichever views I'd had on China previously.

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[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I don't think that national self-determination is rooted in the Westfalian system. Nations predate states by a long while. The opposite of national self-determination is domination and the middle ground between them is chauvinism. Domination is when you force another nation of people to bend to your will directly. Chauvinism is when you make decisions based on your belief that another nation of people ought to choose the way you choose. Neither have historically worked out for anyone.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

I'm just quoting political theory professors. I agree with you that it probably didn't really originate in Europe. As I stated in my original post. That said, western nations stealing the credit is kind of their M.O.