Crazy Ivan’s Prediction of US Disintegration
January 4th, 2009by Sean Gorman
In news of the weird the Wall Street Journal ran a piece last week about a Russian’s professor’s prediction that the United States will fall into civil war and segment into six countries by July 2010. While an off the wall prediction it is interesting to see how the former Russian KBG analyst demographically and politically segments the United States.
Apparently this idea has become all the rage in Russia and Professor Panarin has become quite the celebrity with television appearances and speaking tour. I guess there is always a comfort in not being alone. For over two decades Russia has been the sole disintegrated super power. Apparently the thought of company has Russia all a buzz.
While the concept is far fetched it would appear the Panarin did his homework. The segmentation of the United States in strikingly similar to Joel Garreau’s The Nine Nations of North America. In the book Garreau argues that North America can be divided into nine culturally and economically distinct nations.
While they are not one-to-one the similarities are pronounced. It makes you wonder what sources Russian intelligence scours to draw their conclusions on the direction of the US economy, culture and politics.
Popularity: 8% [?]
January 5th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Apparently the story has legs - here is a follow up in the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010202401.html
Ironically it mentions Garreau’s book. Not too surprising since he is a DC local.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
[…] out the whole article at the Wall Street Journal, and the Off The Map Blog also has an interesting post on it. The latter is the reason it came to my attention… the nice use of maps of course! […]