Another brilliant book from Andrei Martynov。There is so much I could write about this book that I am not sure where to start and I doubt I could do it justice unless I spent more time than I would like to writing a review I'd be happy with。I suppose I could summarise it as a Russian born Senior Engineer's （I do Mr Martynov a disservice， according to Pepe Escobar， he is one the best Russia analysts） wide angle lens view of American elites， American industrial strength and policy， American militar Another brilliant book from Andrei Martynov。There is so much I could write about this book that I am not sure where to start and I doubt I could do it justice unless I spent more time than I would like to writing a review I'd be happy with。I suppose I could summarise it as a Russian born Senior Engineer's （I do Mr Martynov a disservice， according to Pepe Escobar， he is one the best Russia analysts） wide angle lens view of American elites， American industrial strength and policy， American military and MIC， energy， empire， culture etc。 at this moment it time， and that in all these areas the USA looks like an imperial power rapidly going down the plug hole。Martynov references Corelli Barnett's book 'The Collapse of British Power' several times as there seems to be a certain amount of commonality involved。There are also many comparisons made to the Russia of today。I am not an engineer。 But I did work for many years as a recruitment consultant in the British engineering sector， and I grew to appreciate engineer's knowledge and opinions， occasional forthrightness and lack of bullsh1t。 Mr Martynov comes across as one of those engineers I used to talk to at great length over the phone， responding in great detail to open questions about whatever projects they were working on or had worked on， improving my knowledge， and therefore future credibility， with the excuse （to the boss） of building rapport - conversations which I often found genuinely fascinating！ Which brings me to the only part of the book I might disagree with or have doubts about， and that concerns fracking: An oil and gas engineer I spoke to dismissed the sort of concerns expressed by Mr Martyanov as 'hysteria'。 But what do I know。I have visited the USA numerous times， mostly road trips around the South West and Rockies （where most of the national parks are） and my experiences with Americans has been overwhelmingly positive - although I have taken a certain amount of care and research about where to go）。 I lived abroad for a couple of years where there were a lot of British and American expats and actually found Americans easier to get along with than my countrymen。 Which is a sad thing to say， but as an Irishman wrote over a hundred years ago "an Englishman cannot open his mouth without another Englishman despising him" whereas to Americans I'm just a foreigner with a funny accent and that seemed to make things easier。 The point is， I have got no pleasure from reading this book in the sense of schadenfreude and much of what is written in this book equally applies to the UK， and also as Airstrip One， we are very closely tied to the USA in so many ways， it concerns me how this will further develop。The one positive I got from the book is that Putin stated in 2017 that he doesn't believe in MMGW。 This ties in with something I read in "Global Warming， A Case Study in Groupthink"。 In 2004， at Tony Blair's request， a team of British 'scientists' were sent to an international seminar organised by the Russian Academy of Sciences。 The aim was to get the Russians to sign the Kyoto accords。 Rather then quoting the lengthy descriptions of what took place， I'll just say it seems the Russian scientists were astonished by audacity of the bullsh1t they were subjected to。 I will quote this bit though: "Ilarionov （Putin's Chief Economic Advisor） ended with a peroration that the world seemed， once again， to be up against a 'man-hating， totalitarian ideology'， dealing in'misinformation， falsification， fabrication， mythology and propaganda。" pp24Tony Blair did subsequently get Putin to sign the Kyoto accords in return for being allowed to join the WTO。 I often to see online comments by people saying Putin is just another NWO puppet because he seems to go along with MMGW， the Covid-19 hysteria etc。 But the thought that occurs to me， is， I think a quote from Napoleon: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is in the middle of making a mistake。" 。。。more