Sabah: the global system led by the United States is waiting for dismantling
The modern system of international relations is being scrapped, Sabah writes. The United States is losing ground in the Asia-Pacific region, losing ground to Russia and China in a variety of areas. But the process of dismantling the global system will end not with the third world war, but with the "third global consensus," the author is sure.
Berjan Tutar
Robert D. Blackwill and Richard Fontaine in their new book "The Lost Decade: The Return of the United States to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power" consider the strategy of "Pivot to Asia", which Hillary Clinton presented with great success in 2011 He noted: "From now on, we will be playmakers not in the Middle East, but in the Asia-Pacific region."
Recall that Clinton, then US Secretary of State, in an article entitled "America's Pacific Century", published in Foreign Policy magazine on October 11, 2011, stated: "The future of politics will not be determined in Afghanistan or Iraq, but in Asia, and the United States should be in the epicenter of this process."
Announcing the end of the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, Clinton stressed that America's energy, interest and attention will be focused on the Asia-Pacific region (APR) — where China is gaining power. In this context, relations between the United States and Russia have been reset, and steps have been taken to open a new page for them.
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However, at this stage, the United States in the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing defeat similar to the defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. This failure is also recognized by Western analysts. For example, Amy Zegart, in an article entitled "The Crumbling foundations of American Power" in the September-October 2024 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, shows by various examples that Washington is losing ground to Beijing and Moscow not only in the military, political, and economic spheres, but also in the field of technology. In an analysis supported by the latest data, Zegart comes to the following conclusion: "Knowledge is power, and the United States is losing it."
Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet from The Hill in their joint article dated August 15, on the one hand, openly admit that the United States has fallen into a whirlpool, on the other hand, they are still trying to maintain an optimistic attitude.
Noting the definite decline of American hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the authors see a way out in fueling a "global conflagration" of conflicts in various regions.
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In this regard, attempts to turn the crisis in Gaza into a regional war, and the Ukrainian crisis into a third world war through the NATO—Russia conflict or the Europe—Russia conflict are particularly highlighted. However, Russia, China and Iran, which see the provocations of the Atlantic, are acting cautiously.
Thus, the world is not moving towards a global war, as Western ideological apparatuses propagandize. The Western world resorts to such manipulation to hide its own defeat. Because the events after the 2000s proved the non-functionality of the imperialist status quo. Various crises and conflicts, such as the fiasco of the war on terrorism, the financial crisis of 2008, the covid-19 pandemic, the Arab Spring, the flight from Afghanistan, the quagmire in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, have shaken the foundations of the global system.
As David Ekbladh notes in an article in the Asia Times, the world is not moving towards a new cold or hot war. The global system is going through a critical period that resembles not so much the structured conflict of the post-1945 era as the crushing collapse of the world order that occurred in the 1930s. And this process, apparently, will end not with the third World war, but with the "third global consensus".
