Wall Street Journal Worries, Global South Is Not Buying What We’re Selling

Sept. 14, 2023, (EIRNS)—The Wall Street Journal said out loud what your basic Western geopolitician is thinking just now—the Global Majority countries are restless and may be out of control. Today’s WSJ article explains how the opening of the UN General Assembly next week presents a problem. Western officials have overestimated the willingness of neutral nations to join anti-Russia policies in support of Ukraine.

Jan Techau of the Eurasia Group consulting firm is quoted: “It’s clear that the West overall has been surprised by the pretty widespread reluctance by many of the countries in the so-called Global South ... to come on board.” Techau cited “animosity toward the U.S. and Europe” in some parts of the world and the desire of rising powers such as Brazil and South Africa to “assert their independence.”

Then it turns out the drive to line up neutral nations behind the Zelenskyy “peace formula”—that is, Ukraine regains control over all its former territories, Russia forks over war reparations, and the Russian leadership is put on trial—was a non-starter. WSJ notes that many “emerging countries” have resisted demands for reparations and a tribunal, and “the international willingness to call out Russia publicly has diminished.” The last straw seems to have been that the G20 final statement last week failed to condemn Russia, and it didn’t even call the conflict a war “against Ukraine.”

The clueless WSJ can’t explain these developments; rather, it is reduced to making the glum observation that, at the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting, non-Western participants are likely “to shift the global focus onto their priorities: global inequality and debt relief.”