Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Eurasian Disunion

Soon after I returned from my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to St. Petersburg, Russia, I remember looking through an issue of National Geographic and seeing some pictures from Central Asia.  The pictures were mostly from some of the bigger cities there, so there was a heavy Russian influence visible thanks to Russia’s imperial and then Soviet colonization efforts.  The pictures made me wax nostalgic for my time in Russia.  As it is now closing in on almost twenty years since my time in Russia, it has been interesting to see, although rarely up close and personal, the changes in those countries, as well as the other countries that were formerly part of Russia or under a great deal of Russian influence, like a lot of Eastern Europe was.  To differing degrees, they have moved away from Russia and worked to chart their own path, often to Russia’s consternation.

Book cover.Eurasian Disunion: Russia’s Vulnerable Flanks by Janusz Bugajski and Margarita Assenova (ISBN: 978-0-9855045-5-7) takes a look, region by region, those parts of the world that used to be part of the Soviet bloc and explores their struggles, their ties to Russia, and possible scenarios regarding their futures.  Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and Central Asia are all examined.  Russia is of the opinion that it has and should maintain strategic interest in all these regions and works to maintain a certain level of influence in those areas.  It does this through diplomacy, through international organizations, through intelligence operations, through propaganda, through its involvement and control of energy markets, and through supporting general conditions of uncertainty and unrest.  (To be fair, other countries and international organizations are involved in the same or similar activities, although motivations may be different.)  The authors examine the responses and defenses of the various countries and regions to Russia’s many efforts (the authors identify what they determine to be sixty-eight unique methods Russia tries to project its will on the former Soviet bloc) to protect its influence in those same regions.  As noted above, the past twenty or so years have shown that, to varying degrees, the former Soviet countries want to distance themselves from that past and from Russia being their only powerful partner.  Most would be happy with engaging with Russia, but not at the expense of other opportunities in the West and in Asia.  The authors examine responses to Russia’s efforts and give some brief thoughts on how things might play out given varying scenarios, largely calling for a cross-Atlantic approach that builds on multi-lateral international relations to provide Russia’s flanks with viable alternatives until Russia decides to play by the rules of the game.

The book is heavy on current events with a hearty serving of realist-style political science.  Given the subject matter, I found it interesting, but those who are interested in other parts of the world may not be quiet as keen on it.  However, it seems that Russia really never goes out of style.  I found the overview of Russia’s influence efforts in the various countries and regions to be interesting.  Even for someone who enjoys reading the news, there’s too much to keep up with, so this was a nice survey of that.  Hacking and spying make the headlines, so it was nice to move away from that and read about diplomatic efforts, the energy field, propaganda, and even criminal tie-ins.  As with many publications more academic in nature, I thought the conclusion section was maybe a little hasty and probably not specific enough even though they were likely solid proposals.

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Behind the Drive

As a kid, Larry Miller was a guy I didn’t really get.  I think I didn’t get a lot of people as a kid.  I was probably a lot more quick to judge people than I should’ve been.  I’m not really sure what it was that made me think he was not up to my standards.  Likely it was a picture in the newspaper of him at a Jazz game on a Sunday (which rarely happened) or a quote in the newspaper in which he used some inappropriate language.  As I have got older and come to learn more about him and come to recognize my own struggles, it’s been very easy to forgive him for those shortcomings.  In fact, it’s probably just the opposite situation now as I tend to see Larry Miller as someone who had many positive characteristics and someone from whom we can learn.

Book cover.Larry H. Miller: Behind the Drive: 99 Inspiring Stories from the Life of an American Entrepreneur, edited by Bryan Miller (ISBN: 978-1-62972-094-4), is a collection of short anecdotes from the lives of those people on whom Larry Miller had a positive impact.  Some of the people who contributed were well known, both inside and out of Utah.  Others were people I’d never heard of.  All had been helped in one way or another by the man that most knew only as the owner of the Utah Jazz (while his car dealership empire was well known, the Jazz were front and center in the minds of everyone that I knew).  There was story after story of Larry Miller giving of his time and money to help someone out, including competitors.  There were a couple stories from his immediate family indicating that he had a great appreciation and love for his family and wished, as he got to the end of this life, that he had made better decisions about how much time he spent with his family.  He was a passionate, hard-working man, driven by love for his family, his community, and his God, and it showed in the way he helped out in so many different people’s lives.  He paid off cars, he bought people appliances, he endowed scholarships for poor kids, he worked to keep the Jazz in Utah, seeing them as something the community could gel around, and he supported his family, friends, and community through service in the Church.

I enjoyed reading Miller’s autobiography, Driven, so it’s not too surprising that I enjoyed this book, too.  This provided a differing viewpoint, but included some of the same conclusions.  I was amazed at how many people he helped, often without asking a question.  He had no second thoughts about paying off a struggling woman’s car loan.  Employees, friends, and even strangers (when the wife of a Ukrainian he barely knew needed cancer treatment she could only get in America, he moved them to America and paid for her cancer treatments) benefited from his generosity with his hard-earned money.  He was a personable person, taking time to get to know the little people, regularly spending his lunches with mechanics at dealerships or construction workers on building sites, not the managers or foremen.  I’ve heard from other sources that Miller was a poor tipper, and that was addressed by a restaurant owner in the book, who said Miller usually gave 15% (standard at the time of the story), but his staff felt that simply because he was rich, he should’ve tipped more.  Judging by the rest of the stories, I believe Larry Miller’s tips added up to well over 15% in his life.  I found his children’s thoughts on family time fascinating and realized I could learn from that, too, even though he probably fell short in that area.  Both the effective and less-effective examples are something we can, if we are smart, learn from.

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This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 License and is copyrighted © MMXIV John Pruess.