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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 8, 2025

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I remember reading the works of Fethullah Gulen. I know he passed recently. Does he have any real lingering impact or influence in Turkey today? Orlando Bosch was an anti-Cuban terrorist that openly lived out his days in the US. International rules and norms are ultimately superfluous if you're the world's only superpower and can act like a rogue state on the world stage. Israel can only do what it did in Doha because it has the full diplomatic and military backing of the US.

If you're a small State out on the geopolitical periphery of some regional power, you can't throw your weight around the same way bigger nations do. If you look at Singapore for instance, it's primary public policy focus diplomatically has always been to try and strengthen multilateral institutions and international cooperation between the countries of Southeast Asia and the US, to bring about a system of shared interests that doesn't involve military conflict. The US naturally doesn't want this because it wants to preserve and extend it's privileges and footprint in the region and because it has the might and ability to do so, it can sideline any recommendations and calls to peaceably work toward a different system for the future. China always tries to look for compromises with it's neighbors but it too is an aspiring regional hegemony and would like to carve out and dominate it's own sphere of influence.