The Birth of a ‘New World Order’ from the Ukrainian Battlefield

There is a lot of speculation about the birth of a “new world order” from the womb of the battle in Ukraine between America and Russia. The Middle East, Asia and Africa are awaiting the results of this battle, its implications and what will be the outcome to form new alliances once the dust has settled. A new world will inevitably be born after long labours and punctuated by direct wars, countries’ occupations, proxy wars and illegal unilateral sanctions which have exhausted the world’s population. What will the “New World Order” look like, and will it be better or worse than the current one?

If and when the “new world order” emerges, it is expected to challenge the current order that the US led and had taken control of since 1990, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced Perestroika (means “reconstruction” in Russian). The US world order and unilateral hegemony were dominant until September 2015, when President Vladimir Putin decided to fight the battle for Russia’s return to the international arena through the Syrian war and the presence of Russian troops on the battlefield. Syria was not an ordinary battlefield but a territory where the US decided to create a failed state that would prevent Russia’s access to the Mediterranean through its naval base in the Syrian harbour of Tartous.

It was far from a coincidence that the US moved to consolidate its position in the Middle East before Russia’s return and created a coalition with dozens of western states to occupy Afghanistan, Iraq, and lastly, remove President Bashar al-Assad from power. The US objectives imposed Moscow’s and Washington’s troops to be dangerously present in a tiny geographic area with contradictory goals. The Russian upper hand in offering adequate support to Assad and regaining most of the Syrian “useful territory” upset the anti-Russian strategic plans of the US. European states were and still are, involved as a secondary force in the US wars of dominance and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, with little return for the continent.

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Europe has witnessed great ancient civilisations, the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman eras. The Portuguese, the Spaniards, the British, the Austro-Hungarians, and the French created their empires, conquered considerable parts of the world, and seized significant wealth. The European continent fought hundreds of wars through the ages until the First World War, known as the Great War of 1914. Britain, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan, and the US (which entered in 1917, 6 months before its end) fought against Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. A few European states and Russia found themselves in one trench (with the US) against the other enemy alliance. Britain’s significant casualties lost 994 thousand people but came second to Russia, which lost 3 million and 300 thousand people. The Russian and European blood mixed on the continent’s soil, fighting for freedom.

In World War II, Russia also had the largest share of deaths (24 million military and civilians) and fought alongside Europe, especially Britain, against Nazi Germany. The US entered the war through the economic gate. Indeed, President Franklin Roosevelt obtained from Congress an exceptional power of the “Lend-Lease” Act rather than sell war supplies at the price it deemed appropriate to support the war effort. Five years after the war’s end, Europe repaid the sums to the last penny. It finished the previously engaged payments between 2006 and 2015.

America had been waiting for an adequate opportunity to return to the European continent to establish itself for decades. Europe represented about a third of the world’s population at that time. WWII stimulated the faltering US economy – which suffered from the Great Depression caused by the stock market crash in 1929 – by creating 17 million jobs, which helped the US economy grow from $88.6 billion in 1939 to 135 billion in 1944. War was a profitable geopolitical and business growth for the US economy, a doctrine and practice that the US adopted for many decades after WWII. However, the war results in the Soviet Union were different from those of America. Russia lost more than 10% of its population, 70% of its industrial facilities, and 50% of its buildings and real estate.

The US found itself cooperating with the Soviet Union – which Washington had no affection for – to defeat Adolf Hitler and his expansionist plans. The US shared with Europe many values, but Washington was interested in the European theatre to confront the Soviet Union’s expansion. It was necessary to create a breach between European states and the Soviet Union.

For this purpose, America created the Marshall Plan, announced in 1947, to form an American-European front and cooperation under the title of reconstruction and operation of the European economy and factories. The Marshal plan also ensured a mutual and common security pact, arming Europe with American weapons, stopping Soviet influence in Europe and achieving American national goals.

With the outbreak of the Cold War after World War II, the United States experienced tremendous economic growth. The war brought back prosperity, and in the post-war period, the United States cemented its position as the wealthiest country in the world.

America began its media and propaganda war and the armament and nuclear race in the Cold War phase. However, 1991 marked the end of the cold war and the disintegration of the Soviet economy to its lowest economic level leading to Perestroika. The US plans of dominance did not start in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, as researchers may recall. It did not emerge during the Cold War after World War II. It began on the 7^th of December 7, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked the US naval fleet in Pearl Harbor, and the US decided to send troops to land in Europe.

Perestroika gave America absolute power over the world due to the absence of other forces facing it, which fit Washington’s expansionist policy. America has considered that Russia will return one day to the international arena again due to its capabilities, history, natural resources, military strength, productivity and expertise in many fields. Russia could be an attractive alternative for those challenging the US hegemony, and Washington was aware of this threat.

Therefore, America’s goal has focused on delaying the Russian return to the international arena and the potential race over the world’s hegemony. It was believed that Russia would not fully recover its economy and military capability around 2025-2030. The West was surprised by the return of Russia earlier than predicted, with a strong economy and new armaments capabilities standing as an obstacle to the western goals of subjugating China and maintaining US unilateralism in the world.

 

 

Featured image: A list of countries with top 10 gold reserves in the world. File photo.

(ejmaganier.com)