Valdai Club

Given the dependence of Western countries on the USA, the Non-Aligned Movement, representing today the majority of the countries and of the population of the planet and disposing of an economic power much greater than at the time when it was first created, has a historic opportunity to intervene in the on-going sui generis world war, writes Dimitris Konstantakopoulos. 

We are living through the opening phase of two Armageddons and we need to stop both of them before they destroy humanity. One is the war between East and West, while the other is the war between Humanity and Nature. 

So dramatic are the events taking place today on the planet, so profound the transformations of our world, that our minds find it difficult to grasp their full significance. For instance, there is a lot of debate nowadays internationally on how best to address the economic, social, political or geopolitical problems of our world. But the majority of those discussions do not take into account the fact we have entered an era of human history when, for the first time, the possibility that humanity may face extinction present.

While the climate crisis, like nuclear war, is one of the most serious threats to the existence of mankind, it is by far not the only one. The world economy, already before the Ukraine conflict, was threatened with recession. Global debt, that is, the demands humanity faces from a handful of private financial institutions, has reached historically unprecedented levels. The same is true of inequalities between countries and within countries. About half of humanity, 3.3 billion people, live below the poverty line as defined by international organizations, while hundreds of millions remain undernourished and lack access to clean water and basic health care.

It was in this situation that the Ukrainian crisis broke out. Responding to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the US and its allies and satellites, that is, all the advanced capitalist countries of the world, launched a sui generis world war against Russia. 

We define it is as a world war because of the extent of its aims, of its global character and of the very real prospect of engulfing other countries like China – and anybody who dares to object to America and the “collective West”. We define it as a sui generis world war because, for the time being, there is no direct and massive contact between NATO and Russian armed forces, out of the fear that such a direct military conflict would lead, most probably, to a nuclear world war and the annihilation of humanity. 

The only measure the United States and its allies-satellites have not adopted till now is the direct engagement of their armed forces against the Russian army, which would most probably lead to a global nuclear war and the elimination of the human species and other higher forms of life. But even this possibility, namely that life on the planet will end due to the use of nuclear and other means of mass destruction (including, for example, new artificial coronaviruses or the extensive use of cyberweapons), has now become much more likely due to the total character of the war unleashed by the West.

NATO’s war against Russia, if it continues beyond this year and if steps are not taken to immediately re-create a climate of international cooperation, will ensure the end of humanity due to climate change. Earth will enter into another “climate orbit”, where the climate change will become self-propelling and it will probably lead to a climate incompatible with the preservation of higher forms of life.

The sui generis world war against Russia that has been unleashed could also cause a major economic and social crisis in both developed countries and the Global South.

These problems are already evident. In many countries of the world, rising food and energy prices have led to mass demonstrations and strikes. Oxfam warns that any progress made in the last 25 years to combat poverty is threatened and hundreds of millions of people will experience extreme poverty and hunger this year. However, the crisis will not be confined to the South. It has already manifested in Europe. We aren’t just talking only about socio-economic problems. Examples include the fires that raged across Siberia and northern Canada last year, the floods in Germany and China, the climate famine in Madagascar, the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, which has been called ‘the lung of the planet’, the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, as well as the fate of Athens, which may become the first major city to suffer a “heat death”.

Given the dependence of Western countries on the USA, the Non-Aligned Movement, which today represents the majority of the countries and the population of the planet and possesses an economic power much greater than at the time it was first created, has a historic opportunity to intervene in the on-going sui generis world war. 

It can do it first of all by protecting and strengthening the sovereignty and independence of its members, which America wants to enlist in its camp, using any available method, including blackmail and by becoming the spokesmen for the general interests of humanity. 

The Non-Aligned must attempt to launch an initiative to stop the war and advance a peaceful solution to the crisis; this compromise would include the following:

• - The cessation of hostilities and the beginning of negotiations to find a peaceful solution that recognises the rights and aspirations of all peoples inhabiting Ukraine, protects the right of all citizens to live without being terrorised by the neo-Nazi gangs which have been incorporated into the actual Ukrainian state, and also the right of Russia to exist in security, not threatened by the surrounding NATO troops or their armaments.

• A cessation of arms supplies to Ukraine

• An immediate lifting of all measures taken against Russia, including those against states that do not want to apply anti-Russian sanctions

• The lifting of all sanctions against all countries, as they have been proven to be ineffective and affect mainly the populations of the countries – victims and not their regimes.

Such an initiative of the non-Aligned could be extended in a manifesto, which would not be limited to the need to stop the sui generis world war which has already started; it would try to formulate the guidelines of a programme of deep transformation of our world, promoting a more equal, more democratic international structure, with the parallel and simultaneous treatment of its major ecological, social and international problems.

Indonesia, as a founding member of the non-aligned parties, but also the president of the G20, could play an important role in this direction and convey to the G20 the voice and will of the great majority of humanity.

It is a historic opportunity that should not be missed.