We Must Revive the Art of Diplomacy!

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Editor-in-Chief

[Print version of this editorial]

July 16—The barely failed assassination attempt against now-Presidential candidate Donald Trump shocked the world into the reality of how fragile the international situation has become. It should be a wakeup call for all: We have no choice but to resort to diplomacy as a way of conflict resolution in the age of thermonuclear weapons. That means one always has to take into account the interest of the other—all others; that is the foremost lesson of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended 150 years of religious war in Europe. At that time the war parties agreed to sit down at the negotiating table. They realized that if the fighting were to continue, there soon would be nobody left alive to enjoy the victory. That is exactly the situation we are confronted with today.

The demonization of Russia is not working in the Global South, because it does not correspond to the experience of these countries, who represent the Global Majority by far. The recent NATO declaration claims that Russia and China represent a challenge to the Euro-Atlantic order. That declaration will be read as praise for these two countries in the Global South, because those NATO countries are regarded, by what were formerly called the developing countries, as the forces still carrying out a continuing neocolonial policy.

It is not too late to resolve the most dangerous strategic situation the world has ever experienced. President Putin’s offer for a new Eurasian Security Order should find a positive response in the West, and should be even expanded into a new global security and development architecture, taking into account the interest of every single country on the planet.