Economic sanctions are how we fight our proxy wars now.
Update: Reports of an ultimatum of surrender by Ukrainian forces in Crimea by 0500 issued by the Russian forces. These reports have been confirmed by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry but are being denied by some Russian sources. It's also interesting to see what Poland plans on doing, especially when you have rhetoric from Poland claiming that doing nothing isn't an option. Most likely trying to promote sanctions towards Russia since they're economy is already down. Question: What does Putin do if other cities in Eastern Ukraine start having pro-Russian rallies and efforts to align with Russia similar to Crimea? I don't see anything good happening to Ukraine in the near-future nor do I believe that anyone will confront Russia militaristically at this point in time. Everything I've read points towards Putin wanting to ensure that Russia will have a warm-water port in Crimea, as they've had for hundreds of years now so I can see where securing Crimea would come into play. As for economic sanctions, wouldn't that somewhat play into his hand on the nationalist front? To allow him to say he was securing national interests while the Western powers did nothing to stop them aside from further isolate Russia, thus showing that they are better off without the West?
All true -- except Russian rubles are in the process of becoming worthless and Russian markets are down ~10% across the board in a matter of, what, a day or two? That may be temporary -- and if you look at the comments on r/economics it's like a silly echo chamber; most think Obama will do nothing of substance, Russia will take Crimea, markets will stabilize and we'll be one step closer to doomsday &c. Where is that viewpoint in the rare cases that we do do more than make "strong comments"? Always with the counterfactual...
How do you envision such a body? I'm not against the idea per se, but a centralized global government worries people and I can understand the concern. Personally, I think that the role of diplomacy needs to increase and likely the way that diplomacy is conducted needs to change. If there were some way of providing strong enforcement other than by the use of state militaries, then I think that diplomacy would be much more effective.
Not me, really. At least, it worries me less than not having one at all. Unfortunately I'm just not sure how something like that will coalesce, but it does seem to be where we're heading in the (very) long run.but a centralized global government worries people