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The reported decision by the lame duck President Biden
administration to allow Ukraine to use American ATACMS ballistic
missiles for strikes into Russian territory, starting with the
targeting of the Kursk region, brings the world into the immediate
range of being possibly a few days away from a strategic, unstoppable
escalation. Given the fact that these missiles, like the German Taurus
and the British Storm Shadow missiles, technically cannot be operated
by the Ukrainians, but must be aided by specialists from NATO
countries, this means that the moment they are deployed, we are in a
full war of NATO against Russia.
It was exactly in response to such escalations, including the
deployment by the nations of the Collective West of increasingly
powerful weapons to Ukraine, that in September 2024 Russian President
Putin announced proposed changes in Moscow’s “nuclear doctrine” to
include the possible use of nuclear weapons in response to an attack
that poses a critical threat to the sovereignty of Russia, including
attacks by a non-nuclear state when backed by a nuclear
state. Putin explained this change in the
following, very precise way:
“The updated version of the [Basic Principles] document is supposed
to regard an aggression against Russia from any non-nuclear state but
involving or supported by any nuclear state as their joint attack
against the Russian Federation. …“We will consider such a possibility
once we receive reliable information about a massive launch of air and
space attack weapons and their crossing our state border.”
He added: “I mean strategic and tactical aircraft, cruise missiles,
UAVs, hypersonic and other aircraft. We reserve the right to use
nuclear weapons in the event of aggression … Including the case when
the enemy, using conventional weapons, creates a critical threat to
our sovereignty.”
The widely reported announcement of the Biden administration ATACMS
decision clearly crosses that red line. Nevertheless, Western
politicians and so-called military experts keep ignoring the Russian
warning, and continually talk about “Russia is bluffing,” “defeating
Russia militarily,” etc. In a delusionary way, they ignore the fact
that Russia is presently the strongest nuclear power and therefore
cannot be defeated on the battlefield. What can very well happen in
the short term, instead, is that all life on the planet could be
annihilated in a global thermonuclear war.
We have at the same time the escalation of the crisis in Southwest
Asia. The Israeli military action in Gaza, which the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have
characterized as ongoing genocide, has led to catastrophic hunger,
which threatens the lives of 400,000 Palestinians. The international
community has essentially remained idle while watching this. Lebanon
is now experiencing a similar fate. If this war were to expand to
Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities, that war would quickly draw in
larger powers. We would then be at the cusp of a global nuclear
war.
The previously dominant unipolar world has crumbled, and the effort
to prevent a multipolar world from establishing itself is futile. That
is the main reason for the strategic crisis.
In October of this year, the annual summit of the BRICS took place
in Kazan, Russia with the participation of the 9 BRICS member states
and 13 new partner states (as well as additional guests), representing
4.7 billion people, or 57% of the world population. These countries
are determined to overcome 500 years of colonialism and establish a
new just world economic order, new development platforms, and a new
credit system and trade mechanism, in order to stop being raw
materials exporting countries, develop the full value chain in their
own countries, and overcome poverty and underdevelopment forever.
Why do the forces in the West not rejoice at this fantastic
perspective? Because the West is experiencing a profound cultural
crisis; the West has lost its way; and because the Western financial
system is laboring under a deadly $2 quadrillion speculative bubble
that demands global genocide.
If we don’t overcome the evil of geopolitics, which resulted in two
world wars in the 20th century, there is the danger of the world
dividing into two separate blocs: a Global NATO on the one side, and a
BRICS-Plus Global Majority on the other side. In that case, we will
face not only economic chaos, but also the immediate danger of a
global nuclear conflagration.
The obvious and easy way to overcome the danger of war and
confrontation is to convince the countries of the Collective West—the
European nations and even the U.S.—to stop confrontation and adopt a
mode of cooperation with this growing Global Majority. If the West
would join hands with the BRICS and help the Global South to
industrialize, we could not only stop the geopolitical competition,
but we could also start to overcome the migrant crisis in the only
human way possible: namely to create conditions where the people who
are now refugees, instead have a perspective to be involved in the
buildup of their own home countries.
Rather than condemning millions of people to go on death marches
through the Sahara to then drown in mass graves in the Mediterranean,
or end up in refugee camps, which Pope Francis has called
concentration camps; or to cross many countries, facing hunger, drug
gangs and terrorism, to then be pushed back at the Mexican-American
border; we must help them to industrialize their nations.
We are calling on the UN or the BRICS to initiate a working
dialogue between the BRICS and the countries of the West (since the
G20 neglects this urgent challenge), to declare their intent to create
1.5-2 billion new productive jobs in the countries of the Global South
in the short term, and to create a total of 3 billion new productive
jobs by 2050. Such an announcement, followed by concrete steps to
ensure the complete electrification of all the countries of Africa,
Asia and Latin America, as well as the immediate beginning of the
realization of game-changer infrastructure and other development
projects, would be a powerful message to announce an era of hope.
The building of the largest deepwater port in Latin America, the
Chancay port in Peru, with the prospect of building a bi-oceanic
railway connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific, is such a project.
Likewise, the building of the Grand Inga Dam and the Transaqua
project, which will help to irrigate and industrialize several
countries in the heart of Africa, are such projects.
In order to overcome the danger of war for good, we need to
establish a new international security and development architecture,
which takes into account the interests of every single country on the
planet. This should be done in the tradition of the Peace of
Westphalia, which ended 150 years of religious wars in Europe, because
the warring parties realized that there would be nobody left alive if
the fighting continued. How much more is that true in the age of
thermonuclear weapons!
In order to put such a new architecture before humanity, the
Schiller Institute plans to convene an international online conference
on Dec. 7-8, with leading representatives and experts of the
Collective West and the Global South to discuss the principles on
which such a new architecture must be based. We will also provide an
example of the dialogue of cultures and civilizations, with beautiful
samples of great art from various nations, to show the way to
establish a civilization based on, not hatred, but love.
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