Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu (Getty/File)
EA-Times Radio Special: Invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s “Election”, and the Putin-Trump Threat
Iran’s Weakened Regime, Tough Talk, and the Killing of US Troops
I joined Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story on Tuesday to analyze wars; the threat to international order, security, and civilians; and leaders and groups who are breaking the “rules of the game”.
Cutting through the click-bait headline, “Could Today’s Global Conflicts Bring a Third World War Closer?”, I emphasize the need to learn about and understand individual if linked cases — such as the mass killings in Gaza and Israel; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and the deadly repression of protests in Syria from 2011.
Along the way, I knock back the simplistic line of activist Chris Hedges that all problems in the world are because of “US militarism”. And I discuss Beijing’s position, US-China relations, and UN reform with Huiyao Henry Wang, the former Counselor to the Chinese State Council.
In fairness to Chris Hedges, the US is responsible for much if not all of the upheaval in the world at this time. The geopolitical balance of power is shifting eastward, resulting not only in a decline in relative US power, but absolute US decline as well. Many people living in the US are witnessing hysteria and madness within a political class that does not know how to reverse the decline. The fear of the rise of a superpower, and a Russia re-asserting itself in Europe has brought about economic nationalism, which began under Donald Trump, destruction of the pipelines, and increased pressure/leverage over US allies in Europe, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. We see export controls in the tech sector, greater economic competition from abroad, and Global South countries exploring new opportunities and partnerships that lie outside the West’s control – e.g. BRICS and SCO. The US has not coped well with these changes currently taking place in the international system, which is why it is ‘circling wagons’, so to speak — keeping its allies close to its bosom; and the allies are happy to play along…for now. How long NATO’s new raison d’etre — Vladimir Putin — will last is anyone’s guess. The consequence of the relative decline of US power and the internal political and societal decay inside the country is a dying superpower that is going down swinging.