Western officials particularly Olaf Shultz, Macron, Polish president Andrzej Duda and VP Kamala Harris reportedly had a difficult time convincing leaders in the global south to take a hawkish posture towards Russia via Ukraine during last weeks Munich Security Conference. The conference is increasingly attended by some leaders outside of Europe who have a more non aligned posture concerning the west and the rising great powers of Russia and China, although it is still a western forum dominated by the traditional imperialist states.
This is in contrast to the way western media reported the March 2nd Resolution adopted by the General Assembly (NYT) "Condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine" (even though the operation wasn't conducted like a modern shock and awe war at first) with a solid majority of 143 countries out of 191
As well as the similar March 22nd Resolution (NYT) also adopted by a roughly 2/3rds majority, though it is worth noting that some of the largest and most important non western nations were among those that abstained such as China, India, South Africa, Iran, and Pakistan as well as 17 African countries.
The divide between the so called developing and developed nations on Ukraine was clear early on. A popular March 28th Guardian Op Ed titled The West v Russia: Why The Global South Isn’t Taking Sides noted that
...the true rift is not between left and right, nor even between east and west. On the contrary, the map reveals a rift between north and south, between the nations that we call developed and those we call developing. And by revealing this tectonic shift, the map can tell us something important about geopolitics in the coming age of multipolarity.
The possibility of sanctions due to lopsided western control of the global financial system and other forms of pressure (cutting aid, gunboat diplomacy) had an influence on these well publicized General Assembly resolutions. As it became more and more clear the west would take a maximalist position [on Ukraine] and threatened to plunge the globalized capitalist system into recession an possibly famine, much of the world became even more lukewarm, and by June the head of the (fairly moderate) African Union called for the lifting of sanctions on Russia (Telesur) .
Now back to the Financial Times article about the Munich Conference , some highlights (which is most of it) :
Western leaders used an important security meeting in Munich to make the case that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine posed a threat not just to Europe but to the whole world. There was little evidence their message got through.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, a clutch of senior US and European officials sought to convince the rest of the world of the threat posed to them by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion — and show them that blame for higher global food and energy prices lay with Moscow.
US vice-president Kamala Harris said “no nation is safe” in a world where “one country can violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another”.
French president Emmanuel Macron said the “neocolonial, imperialist” Russian invasion was not “only a European war”. German chancellor Olaf Scholz said it would be everybody’s problem if “the law of the strongest prevailed in international relations”.
Yet their attempts to portray the war in universal terms met some familiar retorts.
Brazilian foreign minister Mauro Vieira said that the conflict was a “very sad situation” and stressed his government “deplored” invasion.
But, in a message that jarred with the stance of western attendees calling for resolve to fight a long war in Ukraine, Vieira added: “It’s been one year now. We have to try to build the possibility of a solution. We cannot keep talking only of war.”
Organisers of the annual gathering in the Bavarian city were proud that this year’s event had a record number of participants from countries in what they termed the global south, even as it remained dominated by officials from Europe and the US.
There was palpable frustration among some leaders from African and South American nations that the war in Ukraine, which on Friday will enter its second year, was consuming the time, money and attention of the west at the expense of other pressing problems.
Francia Marquez, the vice-president of Colombia, said that her country wanted Europe’s help tackling the fallout from climate change and protecting the Amazon rainforest. “We don’t want to go on discussing who will be the winner or the loser of a war,” she said. “We are all losers and, in the end, it is humankind that loses everything.”
Namibian prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila was asked why her country had — along with China, India and 32 other nations — abstained from a UN resolution in October that saw 143 countries declare the Russian annexation of several Ukrainian regions as illegal.
She said that Namibia was focused on “resolving the problem, not on shifting blame”. She added: “The bottom line is that money used to buy weapons would be better used to promote development in Ukraine, in Africa, in Asia, in the EU itself where many people are facing hardships.”
Western officials said bilateral meetings on the conference sidelines revealed a much greater preoccupation with issues such as inflation, debt, higher energy prices and food security than with the war in Ukraine. There was also a lingering resentment, they said, over the west’s disappointing record on sharing coronavirus vaccines and compensation for the damage caused by climate change.
...
[and of course its always at least in part about CHINA for the west today]
China’s stance on the conflict loomed large over the Munich gathering along with tensions between Beijing and Washington. Amrita Narlikar, president and professor at the Hamburg-based German Institute for Global and Area Studies, said that European and American officials needed to do better in countering what she called China’s “very clever” framing of itself as a part of the developing world, where it promotes itself as a partner to help nations safeguard their sovereignty and boost development.
Narlikar said a peace plan for the Ukraine conflict that Beijing had promised to publish in the coming days — drawing skepticism from European and US officials — would probably target not just the west. “Equally importantly, the global south can be expected to be the audience,” she said.
“If China were to present its vision as one of a peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, and emphasize the global economic costs of a long-drawn war, this would enjoy considerable support in large parts of the global south.
“The west needs to get its act together and build more inclusive and winning narratives,” she added.
(end of article)
Its also worth noting that this got published yesterday right before Biden's surprise visit to Ukraine - which is quite obviously suppose to be a snub towards Putins upcoming February speech roughly around the anniversary of the so called Special Operation - , pledging full support and saying nothing that Contradicts the Zelensky regimes maximalist position on the Donbass and Crimea.
Via The Wall Street Journal :
Standing beside Mr. Zelensky and flanked by the American and Ukrainian flags, Mr. Biden pledged “unwavering support” for Ukraine and its sovereignty and territorial independence while wearing a suit and a striped tie bearing the Ukrainian flag’s blue and yellow colors.
Biden also once again placed the conflict on neoconservative terms, pledging allegiance to the Kiev regimes nationalist struggle, and claiming it as a key pillar in a war for western democracy in a world of barbarism :
"For all the disagreement we have in our Congress on some issues, there is significant agreement on support for Ukraine," he said.
"It’s not just about freedom in Ukraine…It’s about freedom of democracy at large."
So far according to Wall Street Journal
Congress has authorized $113 billion in military and economic assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began.
US vice-president Kamala Harris said “no nation is safe” in a world where “one country can violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another”.
hear hear!
US vice-president Kamala Harris said “no nation is safe” in a world where “one country can violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another”.
French president Emmanuel Macron said the “neocolonial, imperialist” Russian invasion was not “only a European war”. German chancellor Olaf Scholz said it would be everybody’s problem if “the law of the strongest prevailed in international relations”.
This shit is so funny. The west still thinks the global south is occupied by uncivilized children who are unable to think or remember anything and need hand holding to reach conclusions. They could’ve done the very minimal of not using language they don’t understand, but they think they can get away with it because the brain size of the non white is too small to see the ruse
That, or they still genuinely think they’re the saviors of the world.
You're right in a way but a large part of this Munich conference (and therefore those quoted comments) was aimed directly at influencing heads of state in South America and Africa as well as their own populace as I'm sure western NGO media in the global south published these comments with no pushback. They legit try and talk to say - a Brazilian diplomat - like that, at least in more public settings. Paternalistic and chauvinist to the core.
That and Macron's thing has to be the most :wonder-who-thats-for: moment I've seen from the global north. It feels like they're mocking us.
possible. the more worrying possibility is that they genuinely believe it. because if so, then we really are in for ww3
Based on how the First World War started, it's very dangerous to assume the people in the driver's seat know what they're doing.
All the west had to do was apologize for their crimes against humanity in Africa and South America, help develop the nations, and engage in trade and diplomacy with them as equal partners rather than subservient dogs, and they would’ve gotten more ears
Instead, they get absolutely disgusted when you suggest their actions from hundreds of years ago still kill people today. They’ll fund terrorists to take over the country and expect you to thank them for saving you from communism or Islamic fundamentalism or whatever else is the current bad guy.
Yes it is antithetical for western civilization to build a Marshall Plan in the countries it relies on raping for its wealth and power, plus the Communist alternative forcing them to play relatively nice is not as looming sense the dissolvement of the Soviet Union.
A big reason why Russia is able to punch above its weight if you will in Africa in todays geopolitical game is because (whatever one thinks of a merc company like Wagner) they legitimately do clean up (kill) the bandits and terrorist that western states support to destabilize African nations, and yes [the Russians] are more capitalistic then the Chinese but will nevertheless conduct eye to eye business with African leaders. Less of this "cloak and dagger" bullshit that the US and Western Europe are chronically obsessed with particularly sense 1945.
I don’t know if Wagner actually does anything useful. I’ve only seen them involved in war crimes which is not uncommon for mercenaries
Of course they are brutal and one cant verify war crimes claims but they are credible. Its "anti terror" kick in the door mop up style after all, but they've been welcomed by some Africans in places like Mali and Burkina Faso (among other states) which get chronically destabilized by AFRICOM and the French Foreign Legion. The US also supported many Islamist in Africa through Algerian Intelligence throughout the 90's and even more so after 9/11 ( see The Dying Sahara: US Imperialism and Terror in Africa by Jeremy Keenan). It wasn't just the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that the US buddied up with in Africa post 9/11. Suffice to say African heads of state often prefer to work with folks who don't support such destabilizing groups.
When you think about it, the Marshall Plan really was an anomaly for being a case where Imperialism turns out to be mutually beneficial. The US wanted a place to dump their surplus (so as to prevent a post-war recession), to expand markets in and to act as reliable source of trade partners which doubled as a bulwark against Communism, while Western Europe wanted to rebuild.
(Not to say there weren’t adverse effects as we see today)
Well put and completely agree. There's so many things to say about the Marshall plan but as we've alluded to it of course didn't happen in a vacuum and revolves around the context of the end of WW2, rising post fascist an anti colonial Communist movements and in no small part the Soviet Union. And ultimately a replacement of the - then relatively - modern western European lifestyle financed in large part by it's own imperialism to one in large part financed by Washington's imperialism.
but have you considered that the west doesn't want to do that
This is a good write up but I don't know how you get through this shit. Even with your edits and astute commentary I had to read it in two sittings so as not to lose my shit. I mean the first line alone...
Western officials particularly Olaf Shultz, Macron, Polish president Andrzej Duda and VP Kamala Harris reportedly had a difficult time convincing leaders in the global south to take a hawkish posture towards Russia via Ukraine during last weeks Munich Security Conference.
Motherfuckers, the UN just had to intercede & break your sanction regime to release fertilizer from a port because you were causing a potential feminine in one of these countries, all while referring to them savages from the jungle!
:amerikkka: :eu-cool: :lenin-rage: :picard-direct-action: :marx-guns-blazing:
I feel you , I often run into a wall writing anything not because there isn't anything to write but because there's always MORE EVIL SHIT to fill in lol.
And ah yes The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's recent comment about the rest of the world being a "jungle" in danger of encroaching upon on Europe's "garden". A comment that echoes the opening of the fascist novel Imperium written by American White Supremacist Robert Harris, which begins with a view of earth then progressively zooms into Western Europe describing it as a special bustling beacon of light and civilization like no other beset by darkness all around it.
Its not just the sanctions that have hindered fertilizer from arriving where it needs to be. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin back in November of 2022 more than 280,000 tonnes of Russian mineral fertilizers were detained in European ports over the previous months. And despite most headlines a lot of said grain and fertilizer goes to monocultures and some to Western Europe itself.
Then there's the general market forces that are affecting wheat prices. Leading some to argue that some fears about a collapse in wheat production are unwarranted (though as you alluded to regardless the threat of famine particularly in the Sahara and the Horn of Africa is very real) but contemporary capitalism will keep wheat prices volatile nonetheless.
Why are global wheat prices rising so much?(MR)
....if the broad global totals of supply and demand are not supposed to change that much even with the Ukraine war, what explains the dramatic increases in wheat prices? Two factors are likely to be playing a significant role, and both stem from and now rely on the general public perception that the current food crisis is all about war-related supply shocks. One is profiteering by major grain trading agribusinesses, which have already shown dramatic increases in profitability in January-March 2022 as they have raised their prices without being questioned, as everyone assumes that this is the result of war-driven supply shortages. The other is financial speculation in wheat futures markets, which can drive up prices even in spot markets.Thanks for this additional detail. It's been a long day and it was a gut instinct post otherwise I would have at least linked the recent Rotterdam port UN story and the Borrell speech.
Oh no need thanks for your comment <3 was funny and insightful (and hopefully cathartic lol).
Definitely one of those "masks off" moments that are rare for these very well trained EU diplomats so glad you reminded me (: !
Remember when the US donated 80 vials of vaccines to Trinidad?
What happened to all the vaccine pledges the US made? Did they ever go through with any of them?
They're just used to getting their way. So used to it, in fact, that they've forgotten the need for the machinery necessary to having their way done. Their leverage has bled away as they exported all their domestic capital and over-utilized their financial clout. Now, there are far too many economic incentives to continue trading with the Eastern Bloc and not nearly enough to keep getting bullshit loans in exchange for exorbitant fees from the West.
To complicate things further, I just don't know if anyone heading up the American State Department really carries whether they succeed or fail. The bureaucracy is so riddled with folks just passing the time till they can make the leap to the private sector that foreign policy has become incidental to the process of governance. In the same way that Pete Buttigieg doesn't really care about trains lighting up a railway in East Palestine, Ohio, how many of Andrew Blinken's deputies honestly give a shit whether Lula or Petro or Boric make some token concession wrt Ukraine?
The only thing that really matters is the next Congress signing off on another $40B aid package to
MIC hardware exportersUkrainian Freedom Fighters. After that, so long as cheap natural resources continue to flow northward into US retail markets, who really gives a fuck what Hondurans or Peruvians have to say about Russia? There simply isn't enough money in it to do more than fill a desk and pretend to do your jobs.Deaf, blind, stupid and just plain David Ike lizard person evil lol.
Imagine being a US representative and saying this without smiling: “no nation is safe” in a world where “one country can violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another”.
Such idiocy being a litmus test for US leaders shows the hubris of empire. Hope this isn't too galaxy brained but the out of touch nature of the legislative branch and Washington in general from the State Department on down makes me think of Paine's quote about monarchy:
"There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless."
Lol oops damn im dumb, trying to fix up this post cause i know its messy, will do that now sry bout that.
Edit: put in a hyperlink of it where I start quoting the Times article.
America is a given (being global hegemon allows you to get away with shit), but the audacity of fucking :poland-cool: in particular to talk down and assume the Global South forgot about Poland banging the war drum into Iraq is astounding.
The ego for being the West’s loyal poodle is something to behold.
Whether Washington and NATO as a whole are totally unaware of Poland's geopolitical interests in Ukraine or it is hubris (probably a mix of both) it'll be hilarious (I mean not really it'd be horrible but you get what I mean lol) if Poland's hunger for a chunk of Western Ukraine that was apart of Poland until roughly the second half of the 20th century becomes unrestrainable.
I can see it now "Poland occupys western Ukraine in Peace Keeping Operation" or something of the sort. They've [Poland] made so many comments about incursion and honestly Russia doesn't want much to do with the part of Ukraine West of the Dnipro River so it could happen. 50/50 I say lol
Poland is really that country that still doesn't know how to play their Geopolitical chips, they really think that the west still not throw them out of the window when shit starts to hit the fan
At least Viktor Orban or Vucic knows how precarious that region is
Thank you for alluding to the placement of that last quote in my post, the contrast between the needs of the global south and that quote makes one ..☠️ ....
Chomsky has his limits but he was so right about quoting western newspapers, other official sources as well as leaders in power to expose their own hubris/evil. Like if you can muscle through it not totally dying inside while hearing their bullshit the contradictions are so obvious.
CPC stay winning. And honestly that last section of the FT article is so juicy. Basically an expert from a western university being like:
"China is being cunning and manipulative by offering genuine peace proposals and development in the sphere of international relations :rage-cry: ! The West must do better they're winning!!"
Odd how the US government can only be assed to do anything for its own country and others (beyond lining up the pockets of its Bourgeoisie) if it's in response to pressure from a geopolitical competitor. NASA, New Deal, Marshall Plan, Civil Rights legislation, etc.
Hit the nail on the head. The motivation and historical forces behind the US reaching for the stars particularly after Sputnik lay within the Cold War and the larger desire to dominate the next frontier. Not solely for exploration, but for conquering. Look at it like the Pacific and the larger global system of commodity's and so on in contemporary capitalism from the gulf and beyond. Said flows are largely guaranteed by the US Navy. The US looks at space the same way in the long term.
Everyone laughed at trump's Reagen esque space force, yet like the fascist border enforcement it is now an excepted reality. A branch of the military and a key pillar in the future of might makes right geopolitics as far as Washington's concerned.
The Global South is tired of being bullied by the unipolar superpower. If Russia gives NATO/US a beating and with the rise of China, they will have some cards to play when dealing with a multipolar world order.
It's about China for the west because China is powerful and the imprial core only understands the language of power
Idiots being dumbasses. At this rate the only global south countries willing to work with them are their paid stooges that lick their shoes without being asked.
