The ‘Start of the Impossible’

March 27—The Atlanticists are operating under the delusion that their world order can be maintained—that instrumentalized phrases like “democracy” and “freedom” will continue to hold sway; that the financialization of the economy can be continued; that the “rules-based order” can keep its grip on the world; that the nations of the world will obediently wear the chains of zero-growth green ideology; that impulses towards a multipolar order can be crushed or co-opted; that change is impossible.

But what if they are wrong? Is the dam about to burst? Will the “impossible” begin?

“New centers of gravity in international relations are being shaped,” said former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, in a March 24 interview. “Take the People’s Republic of China, India, and the Russian Federation.… The unipolar world is over. The U.S. is no longer the master of planet Earth.”

As a growing collection of sanctions cut off Russia from those nations choosing to implement them (cutting those nations off from Russian goods in the process), Russia is increasingly turning to India, to China, to Southwest Asia, and to Africa in its trade arrangements. The extremely deep, “no limits” relationship between Russia and China, announced by Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in their February 4 Joint Statement, reflects the strength of the global realignment.

Over the last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has visited Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nepal. His visit to India was the first by a top Chinese official in two years, following border clashes between the two nations. The enormous potential for strategic and economic cooperation between these two countries, the two most populous of the world, can be unlocked through greater bilateral cooperation, and through the BRICS and SCO processes.

The goal of the U.S.-U.K.-NATO establishment is to destroy Russia as a sovereign country able to choose an independent direction. Even without the military operation in Ukraine, many anti-Russia sanctions were essentially perpetual (by virtue of their withdrawal being tied to the absurd condition of Crimea’s return to Ukraine).

Attempts to convince the developing world to abandon plans for a prosperous future, to instead commit collective suicide, have so far failed to achieve their wicked objectives, (As for example, the relative failure of the “Great Reset” at the COP26 conference last November.)

Can the growing impulse to reject the us-vs.-them framework of unipolar dominance, be stopped by anything short of warfare?

The terrifying potential of what could become general, nuclear warfare is upon us. As Russia makes progress in its military operation in Ukraine, to what lengths will the Anglo-American “special relationship” not go to prevent a future-oriented peace arrangement, to pursue instead the destruction of Russia, at the expense of as many Ukrainians as are required?

MIT Emeritus Professor Ted Postol has explained the perilous potential for even unintended nuclear war: “the only thing [the Russians] can do to stave off American enthusiasm about attacking them is to make preparations for an automated response. A doomsday kind of weapon, although that’s not—I doubt that’s exactly the way they think of it. But a doomsday kind of response, which basically occurs if the leadership is killed in the early phase of an American nuclear attack…. Well, that’s a complicated system, where errors in that system can occur that could then lead to a devolution of launch authority, resulting in massive launches that were unauthorized. … [This is a] situation where everything is potentially a lot more dangerous, because an accident could much more easily occur.”

This entire geometry—in which an accident could end human civilization—cannot be allowed to continue. It is time to bring into being the seemingly impossible, but necessary strategic and development architecture that the uniquely creative nature of human beings demands.

The Schiller Institute is sponsoring an international online conference on April 9, to establish that new security and development architecture What can you do to play a meaningful role in its success? Begin by registering and circulating the invitation to that conference.