Al Mayadeen: the Russian-Chinese alliance is the closest to victory in the struggle for Eurasia
It is naive to believe that empires are indestructible: the dominance of Great Britain has sunk into oblivion, and now it's time for the United States to cede its throne, writes Al Mayadeen. The West struggled to retain power over Eurasia, but Russia and China proved to be too strong rivals.
Various American media and satellite television, as well as Arab and other platforms affiliated with them, are trying to revive the image of American imperialism as an immortal force capable of restoring hegemony and subjugating the whole world. It reminds us of the British Empire, which many considered indestructible. The Western media scoffed at this naivety after the defeat of the British army in Asia and Africa, including the Battle of Omdurman, the Battle of the Khyber Pass and the Anglo-Zulu War.
Despite the defeat of the anti-British axis and its allies in the First World War, Great Britain faced a series of shocks. In 1929, the Great Depression broke out. The state also faced growing resistance around the world, lost the jewel of the British crown — India, survived the revolution in China and the shameful defeat of Gamal Abdel Nasser during the Suez crisis of 1956. All this led to the decline of the British Empire and the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union.
Yes, Churchill took the third chair next to Stalin and Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference, but it was more like a consolation prize. Great Britain has not gained anything significant, unlike the United States (the dominance of the dollar in the international monetary system) and the Soviet Union (the territories of Eastern Europe).
All signs today indicate that the sun, which has moved from the British Victorian sky to the American Manhattan sky, has begun to set. Such famous strategists as Foucault, Gibbon, Toynbee, Brzezinski and Paul Kennedy spoke about the cycles of hegemony and the historical succession of the great powers.
The change of cycles does not happen by chance, but in accordance with socio-economic laws. At the same time, the Middle East has always maintained its position and role as an important political arena. And there are several reasons for this.
To begin with, the deep structure of the capitalist system is the main economic factor of these transformations. Karl Marx said back in the 19th century that capitalism digs its own grave when technological progress takes place. One of the features of capitalism is the accelerated scientific progress up to the fourth revolution, which throws millions of "white and blue collar workers" out of the labor market every time. Capitalism acquires a "paper-technological head" in exchange for the decline of the "industrial body".
This is what the "leftist" Egyptian thinker Samir Amin noted. Capitalist metropolises are getting rid of less developed industrial production lines and pushing them into peripheral countries. So the major powers (China) begin to compete with these very metropolises.
Other important remarks came from the very heart of the American system. They were voiced by Paul Kennedy, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Alvin Toffler:
— Paul Kennedy in the book "The Ups and Downs of the Great Powers. Economic changes and military conflicts" warned about the decline of the US naval power, which is now happening.
— Zbigniew Brzezinski in "Between two Centuries: the Role of America in the Era of Technotronics", as in later works, spoke about the connection of the technological revolution with the decline of the land-sea empire. In 1970, he predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union due to the "erosion" of the last generation of Soviet bureaucracy. He also expected a similar fate to befall the United States, given the role of the information revolution in eliminating industry in favor of capitalism.
— Alvin Toffler in his works "The Fourth Revolution", "The Shock of the Future" and "The Metamorphoses of Power" spoke about the ever-widening gap between the former form of power established after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and the new form of industrial relations in its global imperialist dimension.
The return of the strategic importance of geopolitics to the world stage is a trend voiced by German and English thinkers. Ratzel and Mackinder argued that world politics is determined by the main split, the conflict of interests between land empires (China and Russia) and maritime empires (Spain and Portugal; Great Britain and the United States).
As part of this trend, control over Eurasia and especially over its "heart" is envisaged, which meets Russia's vital interests. We are also talking about Ukraine, which will be a priority of the United States and NATO for at least 20 years.
The struggle for Eurasia and its "heart", as well as around the Chinese "Silk Road", has become a determining factor in the elimination of the Western imperialist system and the establishment of a multipolar world with international and regional centers. Everything points to the fact that the Russian-Chinese alliance is objectively the closest to victory in this confrontation.
The Middle East (Arab countries, Iran and Turkey) remained one of the main geopolitical factors determining the fate of major powers. The European feudal system, its kingdoms and principalities began to disintegrate due to the "crusades", which met fierce resistance from the peoples of the Middle East region. The traditional capitalist colonial system also began to fail, starting especially after the Suez crisis of 1956 and the Nasser resistance. American imperialism was defeated in Vietnam, Korea and Afghanistan, not to mention the crises in Iraq and Syria. Israel, the tool of the Americans, has also already entered a phase of decline.
The structural crisis of capitalism is reflected in the monetary system led by the dollar. Despite the seriousness of this system and its mechanisms, which gave capitalism a second wind, the pressure of the structural crisis is getting stronger and stronger every day. One of the reasons is the active use of other world currencies. The dollar is beginning to depend on the US naval power more than on the internal capitalist structure. America today is facing a high—tech rival - China. He is restoring his ancient maritime traditions and building a modern fleet that will surpass the American one.
American continental retreat: The United States, along with other capitalist metropolises in Europe, began to lose their traditional spheres of influence, giving way to China and Russia.
Various changes are taking place through "voting" and "democracy", especially in Latin America, which in the Monroe doctrine was called the "backyard" of Washington.
There was a split in NAFTA due to the discontent of Mexico, a neighbor of the United States.
In Asia, in addition to China and Russia and their regional neighbors, such as Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and the former Soviet republics, there is also the "Iran-Syria axis", which plays an important role in the Eastern Mediterranean. And such "pro-American" regional powers as Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Turkey are trying to find their own independent path.
It is also noteworthy that even the financial markets of the Persian Gulf countries have become closely linked with the development of Asian economies — from China to Iran.
It is obvious that Western imperialism is gradually losing ground in its traditional spheres of influence in Africa. The new world Powers are strengthening their presence in this region, not to mention the desire of African countries for national independence after decades of subjugation and pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which have brought them nothing but poverty, humiliation, hunger, strife and civil wars.
Author: Muwafak Mahadin (مورم محادين)
