A World On The Brink of Total War | Dmitri Alperovitch

In Episode 361 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder and executive chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, the co-founder of leading cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, and the author of the soon-to-be-released book “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century.”
Dmitri Alperovitch makes the case that we are already in the midst of a new Cold War with China and that Taiwan is the strategic flashpoint that risks triggering a devastating conflict between two nuclear powers in a way that West Berlin nearly played during America's last Cold War with the Soviet Union. He and Kofinas discuss the similarities and differences between Cold Wars I and II, including the role played by the USSR as a liberator in Europe and the strong appeal of communism as a competing ideology in the early decades of the First Cold War. They also discuss how America lost an opportunity to build a sustainable peace with post-Soviet Russia and how this has made the new Cold War with China all the more challenging and dangerous.
The episode’s second hour begins with a discussion about the importance of Taiwan and a thought experiment about what would happen in the event of an uncontested Chinese takeover of the island. Alperovitch and Kofinas discuss the philosophical underpinnings of American supremacy and arguments for its preservation, the need to build national unity by addressing legitimate domestic grievances, military-industrial reform, immigration, and what it will take to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan that Dmitri believes could happen before the end of this decade.
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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas
Episode Recorded on 04/19/2024

[@AnnDale-ie3jn]

The good news is that ordinary people in East Asia are coming together visiting each others countries as tourists k pop is big in Japan as j pop is in China. barbecue Korean beef is popular in Tokyo as Sushil is in Beijing and Shanghai and marriages between Korean men and Japanese women is soaring. it all bodes well for a peacefully future for the peoples of North East Asia despite what this man thinks who is only interested in maintaining US power in the Asia Pacific region not the well being of the people of East Asia

[@worldofdaas]

Excellent interview!

[@danwelterweight4137]

Anyone who is thinking of getting involved in a war with China over Taiwan needs to get some serious meds, and go to the doctor to get their head checked. You don't know Jack about China or Chinese history Like, did you not even take any time to read about Chinese history? Cause if you did you would know that this is not the first time China had to reunite Taiwan to the Mainland. It's the second time. The first time was exactly identical to what happened this time. Two warring Dynasties the Ascending Qing and the Descending Ming fought for control of the Mainland. The losing Ming forces fled to Taiwan and established their forces and bases there. The victorious Qing then launched a amphibious war to conquer Taiwan in order to bring the Ming into submission. They launched 11 different Amphibious invasion attempts, and cost the lives of half a million people It was a war that lasted 40 years from 1642 to 1682. For 40 years the Qing kept sending Amphibious invasions of Taiwan again and again and again and again and again. They never stopped coming until they eventually succeeded in 1682. Now you Westerners need to decide whether you are willing to fight an all out war with China that will 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 100 years that cost the lives of countless amounts of your airmen and sailors, because once the Chinese go to war over what they see as an integral part of their country they never stop coming until they eventually succeed. Also remember that China can alway put more missiles and artillery on their Mainland than you can put on your ships. And while they can sink your ships and send them to the bottom of the ocean, you cannot sink their Mainland. Theie manufacturing capacity allows them to replace their losses much faster and quicker than you can. Plus Taiwan is right next to them while you have to travel 7000 Miles around the world to get to Taiwan with a huge long supply lines that can be easily targeted and cut. The sea between Taiwan and Mainland China is very shallow. It's only 30 m to 40 m deep. Your submarines could easily be seen from space there and destroyed with air power from the Mainland . The Chinese will have air cover from the Mainland. Furthermore, China has the capacity to wipe our Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC, Washington DC, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, San Diego. . They have missiles and drones that can hit and wipe out our Mainland and reach havoc onto the continental United States. Are you guys willing to sacrifice all these cities and your entire navy in a 40 year war with China over Taiwan? Remember China manufacturers 70x more shipping tonnage than the United States. They manufacture 12x more steel than the United States. They graduate 7x more scientists, engineers, mathematicians and technicians than you. They manufacture more shipping tonnage than the rest of the world combined. You go to war with the they will out manufacture you in weapons into oblivion. They will out manufacture you and their weapons will be much cheaper and better quality and even more sophisticated than yours. They will mobilize tens of millions and tens of millions of men into the PLA Their industrial manufacturing capacity is larger than the United States plus the next 8 countries combined. Their population is equivalent to the entire population of the United States plus Japan plus 1 Billion people. Plus China would have the support of Russia and it's massive natural resources, raw materials, food, energy supplies, and additional military industrial manufacturing capacity. Remember you are talking about a country with a history of fighting 500 year wars, 200 year wars, 50 year wars, 30 year wars. Taiwan is undefendable. The Island imports 67% of its food and 98% of its energy. Good luck trying to defeat that.

[@Salisboury]

Although he made some good points, claims such as the one he made at 26:55 that the US are for self-determination, anti corruption… and all the other propaganda mumbo jumbo that the US likes to represent itself as - leaves me scratching my head.

[@TrendzSA]

lol exactly this! Americans have become utterly delusional

[@user-xf4es7eh9y]

the guest is a joke. soon as I heard this is the guy behind the vastly overhyped so called "aurora" attack I knew we were in for a doozy. That was the start of these vastly overhyped and marketed infosec marketing campaigns. Look into crowdstrike. They are rotten to the core and it starts with the head, this guy. Almost everything he said was a lie or distortion. He judges routine industrial espionage, something the US does 1000x more than anyone else, to be some major game changing event which signals that China isn't interested in coexisting with US. Mind boggling inane nonsense.

[@liranyang7033]

USA is on the east side of the Pacific Ocean, and Taiwan is the west side of the ocean. Taiwan to China is like Hawaii to the USA . What is the problem?

[@user-xf4es7eh9y]

"he was convinced it was a CIA coup, WHICH OF COURSE WAS NOT THE CASE." Of course not. The US has never and will never do such things. Of course. OF COURSE NOT. This interview gave me literal cancer.

[@oscarcollier5141]

Superpower but cannot protect its intellectual property. What a load of bull.

[@urban_housecleaner9454]

You can tell this guy drank his own Kool-Aid a long time ago. his comment that the United States stands up to corruption😂 and self determination

[@marsmotion]

really you wont acknowledge the cia and dpt of state involvement in ukraine....ok your lying im out.

[@MarsBorg]

Unipolar delusions

[@aghassimkrtchyan6323]

Ok, have to stop at 17 minutes, when he says that in 30s America helped to industrialize USRR even though USSR was an enemy … Soviets never treated America as an enemy in 30s. Soviet’s enemies were Germany, Japan, Poland and Romania that wanted to take territory from soviets. There were no country from which soviets were claiming territory until 1938. Until Munich

[@user-xf4es7eh9y]

its opposite day. He openly admits we sent in troops to fight the reds, and ofc we started the global religion of anticommunism, funding fascist death squads all over the world, but ofc we're the good guys and no really they're the ones hell bent on our destruction. The soviets biggest folly was trying to reason and compromise with the US at every turn when it was clear the US was not acting in good faith at any stage.

[@robk8463]

Are you kidding me? Are you a Russian bot or what? After 1917 several states declared their independence and were brutally suppressed and reabsorbed by the Soviet state. Ukraine, the Baltic states, the Caucasus regions all had independence or independence movements. And what difference would it have made anyway if it didn't happen until 1938? Also, Stalin most definitely viewed the US as an enemy as he did every nation that was capitalist.

[@WilliamSanderson-zh9dq]

Lol. "There were no country from which soviets were claiming territory until 1938." Go to wikipedia before claiming nonsense. There were almost 30 invasions by the USSR in the 20s and 30s, including into Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Finland, Sochi (Ottoman), Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia-Ossetia, Poland, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Mongolia, East Karelia, Afghanistan, China, Khiva, Afghanistan (again), Japan, China (again).

[@DJRYGAR1]

@@WilliamSanderson-zh9dq Russians willy-nilly rewrite history as the need arises. Discussing with them about history is pointless, they only know propaganda stories presented as 'history'. Just few days ago they (again!) changed Katyn massacre story as 'German fascist crime' and removed themselves as perpetrators. Probably an attemt to infuriate or troll Poles.

[@LisaWilliams-tc1oy]

Wow, you’re promoting your book and right off the bat, you make a derogatory comment about people from the deep south. You are correct about the deep south culture being different, people are polite, make eye contact, smile, wave, say yes ma’am/sir, respect their elders and care very deeply for their family, friends and neighbors.

[@S.J.L]

Everything has light and shadow.

[@kissthesky40]

Relax Karen.

[@marsmotion]

@@S.J.L this is a fallen planet yes

[@user-oc6dh2yp2w]

It's all fake. Southern politeness is all for show. If they find out you are liberal, or god forbid gay, they start treating you like dirt. A lot of prejudice and hatred is part of their culture.

[@LisaWilliams-tc1oy]

Wow, you’re promoting your book and right off the bat, you make a derogatory comment about people from the deep south.

[@gerrystevens9041]

he is lying.repeatedly. why?