The majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates, writes Jeffrey D. Sachs.
The majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates, writes Jeffrey D. Sachs.
The majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates, writes Jeffrey D. Sachs. By Jeffrey D. Sachs Common Dreams The recent BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, should mark the end of the Neocon delusions encapsulated
Brzezinski was decisively wrong, and his misjudgment helped to lead to the disaster of the war in Ukraine. Russia did not simply succumb to the U.S. plan to expand NATO to Ukraine, as Brzezinski assumed it would. Russia said a firm no, and was prepared to wage war to stop the U.S. plans. As a result of the neocon miscalculations vis-à-vis Ukraine, Russia is now prevailing on the battlefield, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are dead
I agree with Sachs that Brzezinski was wrong. Sachs does not present the actual reasons why. Brzezinski claimed Russia was incapable of creating an anti-hegemonic collaboration in 1997. That was true, and it was true in much of the 2000's. At one point that obviously stops being true, Brzezinski's statement isn't evergreen that's simply now how history works.
However Brzezinski's statement could have been evergreen had the United States asked Russia to join NATO in 2000's. The NATO-Russia Council was the first step towards making Brzezinkski's statement evergreen. In 2000 there was a real potential for Russia to join NATO, Putin asked about an invite, NATO said a noncommittal "just apply" response. Had NATO rolled out the red carpet for Russia like they do for Ukraine now, Brzezinksi would have been right forever.
The United States would have extinguished Russia as a competitor had they allowed them a seat at the table comparable to other "Great Powers" of Europe. They did not. When the US picks partners like this, they want bootlickers and grovelers. They want the opposing party to know that they are subservient and to act accordingly, that the US is their savior. That's been the interaction between the US and most NATO expansion countries in the 2000's.
The US simply shot themselves in the foot with this one. The reality is that the US is incapable of running an amazing hegemony because of its obvious political neuroses. Those are problem #1, they can't even handle the #2 problem of the obvious contradictions in the world order and capitalism because they're stuck viewing it through a neurotic lens of their ideology. Those first order problems of neuroses have weakened the hegemony long before the second order contradictions start nipping at the seams. Those second order contradictions have been nipping, especially with Turkey.
The problem is that this was never possible because NATO is fundamentally subordinate to the US. All the other members are vassals as opposed to sovereign states that are equal partners. Russia was never going to subordinate itself to the US in that way.
I don't think that's true. Turkey has never been a subordinate to the US not to the same degree as any EU country. They've always been a wildcard in NATO. Likewise Russia especially Putin's Russia would be easy to subordinate. Putin needs flattery, he wants recognition that he's part of the club. Had America flattered Putin through official means 95-2010, Russia would be in the tank. There's very little actual ideological difference between the two countries ruling parties. If Putin was treated like a France level ally, where they're allowed their own sphere of influence and can influence/direct NATO operations, Putin would have fallen in line.
Just think about it, Russia-Chechnya is a copy-paste of a NATO counter terrorism operation. If Russia was in NATO and could say, hey lets do counterterrorism in Chechnya, whenever the US said "jump" they'd say "how high?"
It just kills me. The United States could have climbed down from the attempt at global hegemony, and been part of the multipolar world. All we had to do was give up just a little bit of control and we'd preserve the majority of our influence.
Instead, the stupid fucks are going to blow all of it and leave us as a pariah state
Stuff like this gives me hope looking forward. Sure, USA is now mask-off facism, but the rest of the world is leaving it behind. Our job in the imperial core is to simply ensure that the decay takes down as few as possible with it.
That's what I'm most optimistic about as well. Things re gonna get shitty in the west, but it seems like the rest of the world will follow China towards socialism. I'd argue we're living through the reverse of the collapse of USSR. This time around it's the capitalist bloc that's in crisis, while the socialist countries are going from strength to strength.
I realize it's not as clearly cut this time around and there are plenty of capitalist nations in BRICS bloc. However, my hope is that as the liberal capitalist model becomes discredited, more countries will start to emulate what China is doing. And of course, things are finally looking up for DPRK, Cuba, and Vietnam.
I would feel so much better if Russia was still the USSR again and not a reactionary hell hole. Capitalists always fight for capitalism, and they will do that and try to become the new hegemony once they got the US out of the picture. It would benefit their oligarchs, just like it benefits the US's oligarchs right now, to keep their allies capitalist and not socialist.
Luckily at present, it benefits them to fight imperialism with the rest of the global south, and I know it's a bit far along to worry about, since we don't even know how BRICS will get through this period of the US and a lot can happen, I'm just worried about Russian (and Indian, if they keep electing similar people,) influence on the global south after the US has fallen. It sucks having all our chips on China, would be nice if there was an alternative.
I still find myself surprised that Jeff Sachs, an architect of shock therapy, has come to some of these conclusions and writes op eds for common dreams lol
That's who this is?!? I kept trying to remember why this name kept ringing a bell
Helped institute shock therapy, has become quite a critic of the west. He has level headed geopol takes now somehow
It seems like he has a genuine redemption arc where at some point he realized that the west are the baddies.
Critical support to Donald Trump and his destruction of the American empire.
I even remember a few political cartoons back in 2017 about The US deciding it doesn't want to be the new leader of the free world and
or 
should be the new one. It should have been the first sign to me that a lot of libs are comfortable civic fascists.Good article, this is a tangential question that i thought while reading it - is there a fundamental difference even worth noting these days between neoliberal and neocon?
I've heard self-described neo-liberals praise neocons by saying "neocons fight wars to make the world safe for neoliberalism". The difference between the 2 does not exist and even the neolibs/neocons don't think it meaningfully exists. As best, they could be said to have different immediate priorities.
Neocon is a subcategory of neoliberal. Neoliberal is a big, overarching political ideology that encompasses Republicans, Democrats, and others. Neocon is a specific movement or trend within the "conservative" wing of neoliberalism.
Neolibs still want to preserve the "rules based order" in a more literal sense. Neocons want the American Empire and are not afraid to admit it. Neolibs also want it, but tend to believe this is achievable or even already achieved through the liberal world institutions and "globalization"(Marxist imperialism). Wars are not inherently good, despite being profitable, it must not be the first solution and/or it must be justified through these liberal institutions.
So in comparison, neolibs actualy believed in end of history, there are no more true enemies and everyone will eventualy accept the market or bend to economic interests e.g what they believed about China.
Neocons believe that is not enough or not yet and America must continue to fight their strategic enemies. They always saw China and Russia as key strategic enemies where the only solution is domination, they're very open about continuing with the Cold war mentality despite Russia's defeat.
When looking at a Trump government I think he wont be able to just impose his neocon idiot wishes without some pushback.
For example the current US military buildup against China is definitely a neocon initiative. Neolibs go along with it because they dare not confront the MIC but they also believe they can dominate China economicaly see CHIPS act, Yellen/Blinken going to China to threaten them with economic consequences and tell them they're wrong. They believe they can outcompete China but first China must play "fair" i.e become a western style economy based on consumption.
Neocons instead want war and real containment no matter the cost. So Trump will have to deal with a lot of western CEOs and investors that understand a significant part of their profits come from China. Neolibs want to contain China but don't necessarily agree with a full war, even more so US illegitimate aggression. Its why Taiwan is the "key", its the bait.
To give a better example, Musk loves Trump but he will also go to China and praise China. Why?
His second trip to the country in less than a year included a meeting Sunday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who praised Tesla as a “successful model” for US-China collaboration.
Because he understands China was one of his biggest market. Neolibs don't want to face the real consequences of a global war and global crisis. Money talks.
For neocons it doesn't matter as much as building the American Empire, an eye for an eye as long as the US wins in Asia it will be worth it, they fear to be missing the opportunity.
I really hope so but I’m a little pessimist. China keeps letting the US encircle them and screw them out of deals while doing nothing about it.
It seems like Russia and eventually India (with Brazil as a wild card) will be the faces of anti-imperialistic actions. But all these countries have a neoliberal problem, even China. I guess we can only wait and see if they actually make a turn left
China is doing plenty about it by building out a navy that can counter the US, and to which every war game US themselves played they lost. They're also building alliances all across the Global South, and moving away from using the western financial system.
China is playing it smart here because they realize that time is on their side. The US is already stuck in two wars, and their resources aren't infinite. Meanwhile, US economic power continues to wane globally and its relevance along with it.
hell yeah