Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine whose country has been turned into an epicentre of the West’s proxy war against Russia.
Throughout this week’s NATO Summit, and in its immediate aftermath, talk of a peaceful negotiation to end the war in Ukraine was evident through its absence. It was a sad reflection of the Western-led gung-ho diplomacy at the centre of the so-called “rules-based world order”.
The appetite for continued global dominance is a force behind the West’s military and diplomatic determination to maintain the global status quo. It masks their unilateralism that has replaced a multipolar world order based on the founding ethos of the UN Charter.
It is a reflection of the growing international divide along ideological lines. In pursuit of their selfish goals aimed at maintaining an uneven world order, the West has rendered the UN General Assembly and the Security Council all but impotent. No wonder the UN Secretary-General has previously echoed calls by the Majority World to reform the archaic UN system.
The looming collision of the BRICS bloc and the US-led NATO will be expedited as long as the West’s urge for world dominance supersedes the need for dialogue and recognition of peaceful coexistence.
Democracy is alright for Western nations. However, the West has no right to impose their ideological world view on the rest of the international community. Sovereignty of nations is sacrosanct. The concept of national interest varies from one state to the other. Diversity of thought, philosophy of life and foreign policy dictates should serve as an acceptable hallmark of a world that is naturally different in both outlook and practice. To force one’s ways of living, patterns of political thought and their brand of governance system is simply a tool of authoritarians and a sure recipe for global upheavals.
The US and the Global North should recognize that it is impossible to wish away the Global South, and the Global East as President Putin puts it. World peace requires unconditional appreciation by the powerful states that their weaker counterparts have equal rights to exist. This, in my view, is a fact that NATO keeps on missing. Hence, the surge to expand eastwards – regardless of the concerns of Russia, or any one’s else. Indeed, NATO is no longer a defensive bloc that it started out as. Instead, it has become an offensive, dangerous bloc that is a threat to world peace. How regrettable.
Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network.