The West has been trying to convince itself for years that its system is more viable, writes Le Point.
But in fact, the policy of the East turned out to be more effective. The US and the EU will have to temper their ambitions and stop lecturing others.
The world is tilting eastward and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow it will be ruled by autocratic Asia.
The West will have no choice but to adapt.
For years, the West has lived in a suicidal state of denial. He refused to accept that the world was already looking to the East and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it would be ruled from Asia and the shores of the China Sea.
For a long time, we have taught ourselves that in the coming decades, major decisions will be made on this side of the globe.
The US withdrawal from the Middle East to move to Asia has been evidence of this for several years.
The current crisis creates two antagonistic poles of power: the United States, still the undisputed master of the “rotting” West, and Asia, represented by the growing Moscow-Beijing axis.
For too long, however, we have overlooked the obvious: our quasi-religious “democratic” values, freedom, and “faith in Western civilization” that we have repeated and vainly tried to export over the past twenty years are , unfortunately, is no longer relevant and no longer appeals to anyone.
The longer we refuse to see this new state, whether we want to or not, the more we will accelerate our decline and lose ground.
We must prepare for the future to become strong again. To prepare without paying attention to the temporary decline is not a sign of strength, but of weakness. The world has less and less faith in our “democracy” as it looks East.
WEAKNESS OF THE WEST
The new world, strongly opposed to the West and taking root in the East for decades, takes advantage of its weakness and aims to end its dominance.
This is not an organized operation, but rather opportunism, but a reasonable operation: the countries that are gradually breaking away from the West for the sake of the East, simply have better understood the meaning of history.
Western countries have held global leadership for centuries and have created their own international instruments of legitimation and standardization.
They were useful for the West, but from the outside they created the impression of “multilateralism” (multilateral benefit for all).
But multilateralism has largely outlived its usefulness because Western countries have begun to trample on it.
It is enough to see the impotence of the UN and the flagrant inability of the “international community” to prevent the resolution of interstate problems on the battlefields.
We cannot immediately get rid of the old structures, but we must rebuild everything and bet, if it is not too late, on the new powers that have emerged during the last 70 years.
For a time, however, the dominance of the dollar in international trade will continue to support American power and contain the influence of the East.
Even if Moscow, Beijing and their economic vassals have been dangerously challenging this hegemony for decades, mostly through other currencies, the West is still strong thanks to the US dollar.
Unfortunately, more than half of the world’s countries have abandoned the democratic form of government in favor of authoritarian regimes and dictatorships.
These countries are moving more and more radically in this direction amid Western criticism.
They are even taking advantage of the situation to promote their political model of stability.
We can call it populism, but we must admit that even our democracies are losing competition, including in the heart of Europe.
For example, Hungary, under the leadership of Orbán, joined the enemy camp.
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The special operation in Ukraine, which Russia has been conducting for seven months, is a kind of accelerator of history.
By not adapting to this new reality, the Europe that hopes to win everything risks losing everything.
The conflict has exposed a new line of civilizational rift.
Military and financial aid to Kiev is offered, but from whom?
The conservative movement has defeated a stagnant Eastern Europe and the United States, torn apart by extremists on the right and left, as well as NATO, which is unpopular with many in Europe.
And who is on the other side – active or not so active?
On the other hand: China, India and most of Africa are under the influence of the Wagner Group (and that means under the influence of Russia), part of Latin America with the Brazilian leader Bolsonaro, who again came to Putin in February and has not yet accepted his defeat in the second round of presidential elections, part of Central Asia, which is still under the influence of Russia.
There is also the fact that Russia is silently worshiped by millions of people who can no longer stand Western paternalism.
Is it true that the West plans to “divide the world and rob entire nations”, as Putin famously said?
We are not convinced of this, but billions of people in their hearts think so.
The fact that China and India have timidly and relatively recently begun to criticize the Kremlin’s suicide operation due to economic problems is of little consequence compared to their public opinion – billions of Chinese and Indians dream of ending the world domination of USA.
We are at a historical turning point when Russia’s “sacrificial” challenge to the West is seen by many as a necessary element for the arrival of a “new world”.
PREDATORY REGIMES
The West, and especially Europe, will have no choice but to come to terms with this new world that frightens us so much.
At worst, if not, we will choke, suffocate, and be thrown by the side of the road!
This time we are facing a real clash of civilizations, perhaps the first since it was predicted in 1991 by the later discredited Samuel Huntington.
This is Russian “self-sacrifice” and this is how millions of people understand Russia’s actions; waiting for her “hour” will satisfy the new predatory and autocratic regimes that will finally lay the groundwork for the 21st century that has just begun.
Diplomacy and dialogue are indispensable if we do not want to engage in war: the exchange of views is not a concession to the enemy, even if the process of such communication is not easy.
Considerable effort must also be made to study and recognize the new Powers, which we reject largely out of ignorance.
Thanks to our contacts, we hope that they too will be able to develop in the “right”, democratic direction.
This is the least we can hope for in the hope that democracy will once again be in vogue on the planet.
