The "unity" of the West only aggravates the Ukrainian conflict
The previous ideas about a united and strong West today are only a collective illusion, writes Bloomberg. According to the author of the article, the current West is a fragile coalition of countries, whose former appearance is supported by a tiny group of politicians and journalists. And this misconception is fraught with irreversible consequences.
Pankaj Mishra
More than 100 days have passed since the beginning of the armed conflict in Ukraine, and it has not only provoked many political, economic and environmental crises, but Vladimir Putin's special operation has brought back to life many dangerous misconceptions of the West.
A few months ago, sharp disagreements were eating away at the United States, the European Union and the ties between them. Germany, the leading European country, has managed to establish mutually beneficial relations with Moscow. Poland, located on the border of the European Union and actively opposing Russia now, was sinking deeper into autocracy, which forced other members of the bloc to take retaliatory punitive measures. The United Kingdom was led by a lying Tory Prime Minister. The United States, seriously affected by Trumpism, mistakes in the fight against the pandemic and the fiasco in Afghanistan, have already discussed the likelihood of a civil war. And French President Emmanuel Macron diagnosed NATO with "brain death."
But as soon as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military operation, Western politicians and journalists rushed to announce that all their differences had magically evaporated. Praising "Western unity" and the revival of the "free world," they spent as much time trying to refresh the image of the West as they did searching for an effective response to Putin's special operation.
Of course, haphazard steps, based mainly on self-interest, have always been doomed to failure. Take, for example, sanctions, which are called a manifestation of the West's resolute readiness to resist Putinism. Sanctions, which have demonstrated their ineffectiveness even against weak regimes such as Cuba, quite predictably did not help to restrain the Russian leader and, in addition, subjected billions of people to hyperinflation and hunger.
Additional reprisals were introduced extremely selectively, and politicians focused more on preserving unity than on the political, economic and social consequences in a world that barely had time to catch its breath after two incredibly destructive years of the pandemic. No one should be surprised that most countries, including Western allies such as India and Turkey, continue to do business with Russia and that Putin has retaliated by blocking ports from which ships with wheat and fertilizers depart around the world.
Believing in their own rhetoric about the strength of the Western coalition, American politicians and commentators began to demand regime change in Moscow and a radical weakening of Russia, completely ignoring the fact that such fantasies of omnipotent power resulted in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. More than three months have passed since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, but the same politicians have not come a step closer to formulating realistic tasks of the West in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the options that the United States and Europe have always been quite obvious.
They could provide comprehensive support to Ukraine in its resistance to Russia, impose tough sanctions and cut off any financial support for Putin's military machine. Or they could commit themselves to negotiate with their opponents and offer Ukraine and Russia incentives to resolve the conflict.
The first option can hardly be called ideal. Countries that depend on Russia for energy and food supplies will not break off relations with it overnight — even Germany will not do this. In addition, the approach of a direct military confrontation with a nuclear power is extremely unwise.
But the second option is not being actively considered now. Therefore, Ukraine does not receive from the West the weapons it needs to fight Russia more effectively, nor sufficient motivation to restore peace by diplomatic means.
As a result, we have — for the most part — a psychodrama performed by a tiny, but still influential minority of politicians and journalists who are trying to find a way out of the identity crisis of the West, verbally exaggerating its resources and readiness to resist Putin.
During his four—year presidential term, Donald Trump crushed the idea, entrenched in the Cold War era, that the West is free, democratic and rational. In Europe, far-right movements and politicians who openly expressed admiration for Putin further blurred the image of the West, which was formed during its long confrontation with totalitarian Soviet communism.
By now, the image of an openly imperialist Russia has already developed, which will help to purify and revive the former identity of the West, as the Soviet Union once did. Statements in the spirit of "The West must keep its composure" despite the fact that death and destruction reign in Ukraine, fuel suspicions that it has become much more important for the West to achieve a blissful moment of synchronizing goals and identity than to prevent a global humanitarian catastrophe.
Needless to say, the old ideas — about a united West with colossal power, authority and determination — cannot be supported today. Today's West is an extremely fragile coalition of countries that are internally divided and whose inhabitants pursue completely different socio-political goals.
Indeed, many representatives of the political and media elite of the West — mostly middle—aged white men - are accustomed to viewing the world from the standpoint of its hegemon. But since their youth, too many destabilizing events have occurred, including the rise of China, which has not yet forgotten the humiliations it suffered at the hands of the West, and the restoration of the defeated enemy, Russia, which managed to gain the status of an energy superpower.
Faced with such vindictive and ruthless competitors, representatives of the Western elite naturally tried to find refuge in the familiar facts and slogans of their youth. But peace and stability on the planet will depend on whether the current divided West can find less treacherous ways of interacting with other countries.
