Barrister Mansur Sarwar |
After the total crucifixion of nonwhite, Non-christian Asian and African countries through colonialism, apartheid, the plunder of their natural resources and brutal wars induced into their societies, apologists still argue that why and how has the emotional pride of Muslims, Russians and Chinese been hurt by the acts of the West.
Why do Muslims argue about their emotional pride and the proclivities to compare themselves with the most powerful civilization on earth? Americans forget that it is not just Muslims, its also Christian Russia, Confucian China, who argue against the most powerful concept of human history. This concept whose emergence in the history of mankind has laid the foundation of subsequent human unhappiness.
This Eurasian block is not prepared to let things remain the same. However, the hegemonic powers will not let go of their stranglehold on resources of the planet.
This concept is the man’s recovery of the inner self-recognition, That has transformed man from a hunted fugitive into the lord of the universe. The concept of thymos, recognizing the dignity of men as equals in every sense is the driving force behind Asia’s awakening.
Nations are a manifestation of humans living in togetherness in search of thymos and its branches leading to self-satisfaction of being recognized and treated as equals. The dynamics of emotional pride of Eurasian nations has come into motion and nothing can stop this train on the move. Trying to undermine this train of emotional pride is tantamount to inviting catastrophe of unforeseen dimensions.
“A slave has nothing to lose but his chains,” Rousseau argued that what becomes fundamental in world politics is that a thing called society exists outside the individual. When foreigners try to impose customs, laws, values of living contrary to their beliefs, customs, traditions, and interests of a weaker society, it creates chief obstacles to the realization of peace & prosperity in the world.
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Asians rightly feel Western Societies have held them back from realizing their true potential. This Eurasian block is not prepared to let things remain the same. However, the hegemonic powers will not let go of their stranglehold on resources of the planet. They treat the planet as an “empty land” and its inhabitants “vermin” like the Red Indians.
The Russian and Chinese quantum leap in the economy and military preparedness are converging to challenge the U.S.-led global order based on Neoliberalism and militarism. Recently, China and Pakistan joined Russia in conducting the latter’s largest military exercises since the Cold War. As the war games kicked off, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shared pancakes and vodka in Vladivostok in yet another public display of their rapport.
Russia is accused of taking the fight to the Western borders; Although Russia has never gone beyond its legitimate defense concerns on its national borders, rather it is NATO that is knocking right on doorsteps of Russia, & China.
In addition to enhanced military cooperation based on defensive strategies the three nations’ uphold their collaboration in international institutions and remarkably frequent high-level engagements between these three countries reflect their growing agreement about how the world should be reordered.
Central in this shared view is the belief that weakening poverty at home, strengthening institutions and enhancing defensive capabilities can accelerate the decline of Western influence and advance united geopolitical goals to provide an alternative to the Muslim countries devasted by the western powers without any let off.
The genocide in Kashmir, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan continues unabated. The vixen West portrays itself as a victim and blames Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and China for all these wars started, executed, and continued by the NATO powers.
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These Eurasian states view American lipservice to support stability— as propaganda to undermine Pakistan, China, & Russia. Efforts need to be made to counter the U.S. strategy — which in fact is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to expand U.S influence and undermine the rise of the Asian countries.
Eurasians must consistently seek to counter Western style of political system and Economic system from being promoted in their regions, as western type democracy is a facade and a soft name of western interference and enhancement of their domination by other means, short of hot war. These efforts are not new, but they have been changing in scope and intensity ever Since 1492 when Muslims lost Spain and Columbus set his foot in the Americas.
Russia is accused of taking the fight to the Western borders; Although Russia has never gone beyond its legitimate defense concerns on its national borders, rather it is NATO that is knocking right on doorsteps of Russia, & China. The Wild West says Russia preys in Eastern Europe, Pakistan pinpricks in Afghanistan, Iran menaces the Middle East and China muddles in South China sea, forgetting that, first the UK for over two hundred years and then the USA has been treating world oceans as their domestic lakes to the exclusion of the rest of the world.
Russian and Chinese foreign policy tactics are converging in new synergies & with the trio of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan in the loop the combination adds strength to these efforts on the Asian frontier.
Now Moscow and Beijing are accused of gauging their power in relation to the United States, they are said to view weakening Western democracy as a means of enhancing their own standing.
It is believed Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, for example, was intended, at least in part, to tarnish U.S. democracy and allow Moscow to claim that Washington has no right telling other nations how to conduct their elections.
In the first place, why should any country tell other countries how to conduct their elections? The West set into motion its disinformation brigades against Chinese leaders of resorting to gradually weaken democratic norms as a way to enhance the international legitimacy of China’s Leninist-capitalist brand of governance. These are the age-old tactics of The Western powers to demonize its perceptive competitors as evil and sell this to its public in supporting its rogue state measures.
A Growing Threat
Although these efforts are long-standing, two factors are increasing their threat to western neoliberalism. First, Russian and Chinese foreign policy tactics are converging in new and synergistic ways. The Russian foreign policy is confrontational and brazen. China, so far, has used a subtler and more risk-averse strategy, preferring stability that is conducive to building economic ties and influence.
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Although these two approaches are different and seemingly uncoordinated, taken together, they are having a more corrosive effect on western institutions than either would have single-handedly. Russia’s assault on western institutions, including electoral interference, the spread of corruption, and disinformation campaigns, weakens some actors’ commitment to neoliberalism.
But it is the alternative model of success that China provides and, more important, the revenue it brings to struggling governments that give weak countries the capacity to pull away from the West. In a similar way, China’s engagement would likely be less potent without Russian efforts to weaken the Western military & economic institutions and loosen commitment to the Western way of values.
Russian and Chinese foreign policy tactics are converging in new synergies & with the trio of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan in the loop the combination adds strength to these efforts on the Asian frontier.
China has long asserted a dynamic narrative in Southeast Asia, particularly among governments such as Cambodia, as has Russia in the Middle East.
This dynamism is not the least apparent in eastern Europe and the Balkans, which the NATO powers are doing within their power to win over to American world order. In eastern Europe and the Balkans, Russia has long-standing relations and Russian relations are considered to discredit NATO.
The EU exists in tandem with major infrastructure investments from China. Consider Serbia, where Russia has long projected influence to undermine American interference. The country right now has a central role in China’s plans to fund transportation projects in Europe as part of the One Belt, One Road initiative.
Serbian leaders view Chinese financing as an opportunity to promote themselves domestically by delivering improved infrastructure without abiding by the strict caveats that come with European funds. This has created the popular belief that China now invests more in Serbia than many major EU countries.
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When this economic leverage combines with the sustained drumbeat of far-right European party’s messaging about the EU’s failings, it effectively tempers NATOs resolve to pursue policies that undermine the rule of law, sovereignty, and accession. Despite differing interests in Serbia and a lack of coordination, Russia’s and China’s efforts are mutually reinforcing, beneficial for Serbia and a new beginning for the well-deserving Serbian population.
China and Russia are also capitalizing on the rising tide of nationalism and discourse about sovereignty to portray Western support for neoliberal institutions as a foreign influence that must be resisted. China has long asserted a dynamic narrative in Southeast Asia, particularly among governments such as Cambodia, as has Russia in the Middle East. Today, such messaging has growing resonance in Europe, where right-wing parties seek to amplify the narratives of populism and anti-EU forces paint them as patriotic defenders of national sovereignty.
The shift in geopolitical tides means that today, the factors that have been shown to enhance neoliberalism are now working in reverse, creating conditions more conducive to the spread of independent rule by countries.
It is not Russia which has proactively fed nationalist sentiments against EU integration, or asked the British to support Brexit and similarly, Catalans asking for independence. These campaigns are European homegrown movements against the grinding inequalities of neoliberal world order advancing the objectives to magnify European divisions and make the EU a less cohesive and decisive actor.
Current shifts in geopolitical power are a second factor increasing the false potency of the threat that Russia and China pose to NATO. History (and research by the political scientists Carles Boix and Seva Gunitsky) shows that when the world is led by more independent powers, more countries become independent in their domestic and foreign affairs. When the Soviet Union’s power increased early in the Cold War, for example, nonalignment movement spread across the globe.
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The defeat of communism and the United States’ triumph, in contrast, caused neoliberalism to proliferate and the number of countries under NATO rule increased manifolds. The shift in geopolitical tides means that today, the factors that have been shown to enhance neoliberalism are now working in reverse, creating conditions more conducive to the spread of independent rule by countries. Which means freedom from the hegemony of the NATO powers.
China and Russia have long pursued a number of direct actions to prop up friendly countries fed up with American hegemony, The Eurasian block must enhance the durability of these regimes. Most visibly, they must give loans and investments to reinforce besieged NATO trapped governments, as Russia has done in Venezuela and China in Cambodia and Pakistan. They also must offer no-strings-attached financial aid and weapons, diluting Western leverage to press for Western hegemony based on Neoliberalism and rule-of- pro- American Elites in these regions.
The compromising a country’s regulatory institutions, environment, civil society, political parties, and media, the less effective state’s power becomes eg, Pakistan is a classic case in point.
Eurasians must proactively transmit their survival strategies to governments and leaders looking to shore up their domestic control. Both countries are convinced of the threat of Western-backed civil wars and have responded not only by “diffusion-proofing” their own regimes but by persuading other governments of the dangers of Western engagement and teaching best practices for controlling their economies and guarding against these hegemonic incursions.
China, in particular, must become an exporter of surveillance and policing tactics, and sell facial-recognition systems and training governments on how to most effectively monitor their economies, corruption as well as foreign interference through Non-Government-Organisation networks of the NATO powers.
Geopolitical changes, however, will amplify these direct efforts if Russia and China engage with a broader spectrum of states. China’s rising power and Russia’s assertiveness if fine-tuned will expand their networks of trade and patronage with many states at once—as the United States did in the aftermath of the Cold War—creating greater opportunities to encourage countries under Russia influence to join NATO world order.
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All like-minded governments must be encouraged to join Russia and China’s international activism and also try to work to weaken hegemony of the West. Research shows that extensive linkages with the West (through aid, trade, and social networks) encouraged pro American feelings which consolidated after the Cold War. Russia and especially China’s growing ties must now raise the aspirations of a growing global tide of anti-American hegemony.
Shifts in geopolitics also mean that Russia and China don’t have to intentionally engage in autocracy promotion to weaken western style neoliberalism. Even without a deliberate strategy to export their models of governance, China’s rise and Russia’s assertiveness send a powerful signal to other leaders about the success of their models and alter perceptions about what constitutes a legitimate regime. Putin has offered a model of governance that others seek to emulate.
NATO will Work with U.S. allies and partners to destabilize domestic constituencies to stand up against foreign subversion of their own democracies and this will be the most effective weapon against Chinese and Russian led world order.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for example, seem to admire Putin’s strongman tactics and have adopted elements of his repertoire to enhance freedom from Western influences. As Xi has consolidated his personal power, the Chinese system now looks more like the Russian one. Although there are important differences, Xi and Putin together send a potent message to onlooking leaders of the success and desirability of a nationally inclusive rule.
Reinforcing Resilience
For too long, Western leaders have assumed that deep distrust and competition would drive a wedge between Russia and China. But this prediction has not played out. Instead, the countries’ strategies have become mutually reinforcing in powerful, if perhaps unintended, ways. The result is that Russia and China are fortifying authoritarian tendencies around the world by facilitating leaders’ turn away from neoliberalism and by making it easier for existing independent-minded leaders to remain in power.
Efforts to directly confront China and Russia over their so-called anti-democratic actions are unlikely to yield results and may further bolster their collaboration. There will, however, be tools that the West will certainly deploy to counter the rise of Eurasia.
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In addition to upholding positive models of neoliberal governance, the United States and its partners will double down on bolstering the resiliency of countries present in their sphere of influence by opposing the development in-country expertise on China and Russian models. They will bolster pro-Western propaganda investigative journalism and buy out civil society, which can propagate immensely on the weakness of Eurasian national leaders who are supportive of anti-American world order.
The compromising a country’s regulatory institutions, environment, civil society, political parties, and media, the less effective state’s power becomes eg, Pakistan is a classic case in point. More attacks on neoliberal institutions the less appeal their narrative and model will have.
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NATO will Work with U.S. allies and partners to destabilize domestic constituencies to stand up against foreign subversion of their own democracies and this will be the most effective weapon against Chinese and Russian led world order. The pressure will be on the west but; there are no easy pathways for Eurasians either.
Barrister Mansur Sarwar Khan is a member of the core committee of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf. The Views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.