The 'New World Dis-Order': Western Liberalism Over Socialism
28 December 2016
By Eyad Abu Shakra
Rumors were rife during the past few days about Moscow's attempts to influence
the outcome of the forthcoming German elections. Marine LePen, the leader of
France's extremist anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant 'National Front' was
ecstatic in commenting that now, following the UK's exit from the European
Union and Donald Trump's victory in America, her 'alt-Right' lot are on their
way up. True to form, Bernard-Henri Levy, widely regarded in the Arab world as
the 'Arab Spring philosopher' expressed his belief that given recent
developments in Europe and globally, there was now a good chance that Ms LePen
would win the French presidential race!
Contrary to many self-proclaimed 'Leftists' and 'Revolutionaries', Russia's
Vladimir Putin is a right-wing nationalist who has nothing to do with Soviet
legacy except his links with the KGB (the salient symbol of the USSR's police
state) and Moscow's everlasting 'Superpower' ambitions. The latter simply
metamorphosed in tactics but not in substance from 'Tzarist Imperialism' to
the Bolsheviks' 'International Scientific Socialism' and 'Anti-Colonial
Emancipation'.
Technically, Putin is a 2016 model 'Tzar'! He is a KGB-trained and
German-fluent 'Tzar' who completed his apprenticeship in the German theatre of
intelligence operations; and like many of his generation, is a firm believer
that Germany is the source of existential threat to Russia from the west. He
also knows that Germany is the pulsating 'heart' of Europe, its most populous
nation, and the cradle of its notion of 'unity'. Thus, disrupting Germany from
within, after achieving a similar goal in the USA through his unreserved
support of Trump's campaign, will go a long way in strengthening his 'escape
forward' strategy, which includes exporting Russia's severe domestic economic,
demographic and social problems.
However, what is noteworthy today too is that Putin's disruptive – indeed,
destructive – attempts are not limited to the USA and Germany, but extend to
various parts of Europe, including France, where the countdown of its own
presidential elections has started.
As for the Muslim world, there isn't much to say actually, in the light of
Russia's direct involvement, with American acquiescence. Moscow is currently a
'partner' with Barack Obama's administration, and is expected to be even
closer to the future Trump administration, in the global fight against Sunni
political Islam.
Therefore, Putin's attempts to weaken and blackmail Western democracies
through supporting its most extreme and racist political forces, and joining
Moscow and western capitals with 'security pacts' against 'political Sunni
Islam' as a common enemy, would achieve several goals in one go.
The first goal is weakening liberal, democratic and progressive groups in the
West against the onslaught of the extreme Right, which would exacerbate
internal instability, frighten immigrant communities, alienate minorities, and
encourage secessionist movements as we see today in Scotland and Catalonia.
The second is eliminating the issue of 'human rights' as a political tool
often used by the West against the excesses of the Kremlin, whether inside
Russia or in the former satellites of the defunct USSR; since the 'new'
Western extremist political elites are as intolerant and as abusive. In other
words, those who persecute minorities and immigrants, bar asylum seekers,
build walls, and discriminate against people based on color, religion and
language, are not entitled to lecture others about tolerance.
The third, in connection with two above, leave Moscow to do as it pleases in
regions where it claims to have 'inherited' or legitimate rights, or strategic
core interests. This is exactly what we witness today in the Arab east, the
Black Sea region including the Caucasus and the Balkans where two pro-Moscow
presidential candidates won in Bulgaria and Moldova.
The fourth and last, is making Russia a full political and security partner in
drawing the future Euro-American strategy in a world going through rapid
political and demographic changes, to the extent that the White, Christian,
European powers (be they Germanic, Latin or Slavic) are not guaranteed future
world supremacy. This is the case given the economic, population and
educational growth in many parts of the world, especially, in Asia. Another
thing, worth mentioning in this context is that the world is returning
unannounced to the idea of 'Clash of Civilizations' against 'Islam'; as the
major non-Christian religion in Europe's neighboring regions, without
forgetting the presence of Muslim communities in Western Europe, the USA, and
Russia.
The four aforementioned goals, and there may be many others, tell us that that
all that was said about since the fall of the 'Berlin Wall' in 1989, and the
emergence of the 'New World Order' under America's unipolar dominance, may
have either been premature or incomplete.
Those who have hailed the great victory of Western Liberalism over Socialism –
although, some softened their stances – it looks now that there was indeed
some kind of a 'New World Order' born after the collapse of the USSR, in 1991,
but has not been solid and well-defined. Within less than two decades the
'victorious' Liberal capitalist West was shaken and devastated by the
financial crisis of 2008, which was a proof that if Soviet-style Socialism had
failed, capitalism was not doing well either. In fact it has been suffering
from debilitating structural problems no denial or political obstinacy can
hide.
Furthermore, in addition to denial and obstinacy, and in vain attempts to
defend their own 'legitimacy', American and European capitalisms, began to
look for scapegoats which were soon found to be the following:
1.Globalization, i.e. the freedom of movement of people, goods and services,
and the resulting racist and xenophobic hostility towards migrant workers
willing to accept lower wages, and less secure working conditions.
2. Technology, whereby technological advances in the fields of computer
science, communications and robotics have made several manual jobs redundant
and old techniques obsolete.
As a result, it may time we talked about the 'New World Dis-Order'.
Eyad Abu Shakra is the managing editor of Asharq Al-Awsat. He has been with
the newspaper since 1978.
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