Is the ‘West’s Sun Setting?

Today, we are living in an ever more turbulent and uncertain world. Consequently, it already seems as if the joints of the chain of the economic, political, and military alliance – the one called the West- are being broken one by one. So I put the question: Is probably the West abating?

By Marjana DODA

The way how the political and geostrategic events are developing around the world today raises the question that perhaps it will not be far off the day when people will say: once upon a time there was the West!

Originating in the second half of the last century having as its aim to  oppose the imperialist, fascist, Nazi, and communist policies, the West has been created like a system of values under the umbrella of a United Europe in alliance with the United States under the motto that democracy, human rights, rule of law, freedom, equality, rejection of discrimination and hatred would rule and that peace would be established everywhere having the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as its custodian.

A few years ago, the West was in the lead in the effort for establishing a more democratic world order and ending the Cold War, for reaching agreements against nuclear weapons and global warming, for preserving climate and free trade, and maintaining peace and the right of small nations (at best for us Albanians it has been the liberation of Kosovo). And that’s all. Now it looks as nothing is the same as it was before.

Apparently, the Western edifice seems to have been hit by the first shake- up soon after Mr. Donald Trump, a successful businessman but perhaps not so prominent in politics, took the reins in the White House. If a century ago his predecessor, President Woodrow Wilson, brought America out of the isolationist politics and launched the creation of a single world organization, the League of Nations (followed by the UN), the US is no longer a major international factor as before, creating an increasingly insecure world with each passing day due to mysterious currents, rather than Mr. Trump’s controversial type, which might lead him towards an isolationist America.

In June 2017, US withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate, on August 2, 2019 it withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which required the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. In the meantime US tested ballistic missiles on August 19 this year an act which, according to some military analysts, risks the increase of military tensions between US and Russia. In addition Mr. Trump considers NATO as obsolete and threatens allies for the non-payment of their obligations (perhaps this happens as a result of his businessman mindset); he labels UN as bureaucratic mechanism and uses hate and racist language going up to the point of erecting walls as the one at the border with Mexico. It is unforgettable that 30 years ago, in 1989, the US was the main protagonist to bring down the Berlin Wall.

In his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump made as motto: “America first!” Maybe his motto has been worth it in face of the US citizens because they vote him, but as regards the historic mission of US for establishing the world order, it is, as a matter of fact, losing its role constantly.

During the recent years the war industrialists or the “friends of the devil” as I prefer to call them, have been encouraging world leaders to a Third War. Tests of missiles and nuclear weapons in North Korea, Russia, America, Iran, and elsewhere, are clear evidence leaving no much room to doubt that imbalanced leaders are emerging.

We should remember that 74 years ago, on August 6 and 9, 1945, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed cities and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and mutilated a large number of others for the rest of their life marking the capitulation of Japan and the end of the World War II. 

But if there is a world conflict with these weapons being produced in a rampant race, one day they may destroy the entire human society. Thus, any uncontrolled production of them, which has become more evident by the declining and isolating role of US, might bring about unpredictable consequences in the future.

West’s second shake-up has come with Brexit, which, according to many analysts, marks the beginning of the end of the European Union. Surprisingly, this process has also been encouraged by Mr. Donald Trump, who openly backed Mr. Boris Johnson to be leader of Conservatives and Prime Minister, calling him the “British Trump.” Why not so as both of them have many elements in common in the controversial, arrogant, and racist character. Mr. Johnson’s ultimatum to leave the EU by October 31, 2019 even without an agreement has shocked not only the UK but the EU as well. But Godfather Trump encouraged him at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, on August 25 this year once again by saying: “We’re going to do a very big trade deal – bigger than we’ve ever had with the UK… At some point, they won’t have the obstacle of – they won’t have the anchor around their ankle, because that’s what they had.”  In addition he noted that Mr. Johnson is the “right man” to deliver Brexit.  For his part, Mr. Johnson, like Mr. Trump, has come up with the ambition that he sought to make the UK “the greatest place on Earth” without thinking that the country is risking to fall into a recession.

The creation of the Anglo-American axis in blatant disregard of the EU is a dangerous precedent for disrupting world security balances, as other axes and alliances are being created such as the Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance, the Russian-Turkish alliance, which besides the EU has created a great shock to NATO by acquiring a missile system from Russia, the Russian-North Korean alliance, the Russian-Serbian alliance, etc. So political developments around the world are being accompanied by the creation of new alliances, and in the face of a weakened EU and a self-isolated America, the West can hardly cope with the misbalances being created despite the efforts of Merkel-Macron binomial to keep it oxygenated.

The third shake-up hitting the Western edifice is occurring as a result of the growing phenomenon of the breakup of the EU itself. As soon as Brexit emerged it was said that Greece was ready for a new Grexit, while the neo-fascist and racist policies of Lega party with Matteo Salvini in Italy create uncertainty, just as the extreme right in France with Marine Le Pen gaining popularity in face of the phenomenon of problems stemming from immigrants. On the other hand there is a Germany at risk of falling in stagnation while opening the doors to immigration. Meanwhile a skeptical Netherlands is opposed to Union enlargement, while Denmark is neglected arrogantly by Mr. Trump like in the case of his attempt to buy Greenland as if buying a plot of land for skyscrapers.

Against the backdrop of the disintegration tendency of the EU and the US isolationist and pragmatist politics, nationalist hatreds are reviving and the far right is growing, as it happened in the last European Parliament elections. So the West might no longer be a union of values, but there will be increasing hate speech and racism, limitation of human rights as a result of the inhumane attitude of some states towards immigration problems, growth of trade protectionism by major powers, replacement of pluralism with fascist and nationalist approaches that are popping up increasingly as a threat.

So, today, we are living in an ever more turbulent and uncertain world. Consequently, it already seems as if the joints of the chain of the economic, political, and military alliance – the one called the West- are being broken one by one. So I put the question: Is probably the West abating?

(Exclusively for argumentum.al)

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