[DEBATE] : Russia ... made a mockery of our leaders' pretensions...west is no longer in charge

[peter waterman]

Unfortunately, I feel that John Gray is largely right.

This may make him feel superior to the major Western politicians but it 
seems to me to provide little comfort for either the benighted citizens of 
the two blocs currently confronting each other - nor to the the Left of 
either bloc!

It is in the interests of neither of these two to have a return to the 19th 
century power-politicking, now made more dangerous by electronic warfare and 
mass media manipulation.

Anyone remember where THAT scenario landed us? It was called the First World 
War. And the Left of that time fell to pieces over it.

Time for the Left - Western, Eastern and Southern - to propose an 
alternative to Gray's dismissed or favoured scenarios. Starting with the 
dismantling of a NATO primarily responsible (with the kneejerk reactions of 
the Russian political class) for both past and present threats to peace.

Pw


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Riaz K Tayob" <riaz.tayob at gmail.com>
To: "Debate List (ZA)" <debate at lists.kabissa.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 11:51 PM
Subject: [DEBATE] : Russia ... made a mockery of our leaders' 
pretensions...west is no longer in charge


Snip:
...
Globalisation is nothing more than the industrialisation of the planet,
and increasing resource nationalism is an integral part of the process.
(So is accelerating climate change, but that's another story.) As
industrialisation spreads, countries that control natural resources use
these resources to advance their strategic objectives. In deploying
energy as a weapon Russia is not resisting globalisation but exploiting
its contradictions.
...
We are back to great-power politics, shifting alliances and spheres of
influence. The difference is that the west is no longer in charge.
...
Sermonising about "law-based international relations" is laughable after
Iraq, and at bottom not much more than nostalgia for a vanished hegemony.
...
Deluded about its true place in the world, the west underestimates the
risks of intervening in Russia's near abroad. Russia's weaknesses -
demographic decline, cronyism in the economy and a seething sense of
national humiliation - are well known, but western vulnerabilities are
no less real.
...

Folly of the progressive fairytale
Russia – rich, nationalist and authoritarian – has made a mockery of our
leaders' pretensions. The west is no longer in charge
o John Gray
o The Guardian,
o Tuesday September 9 2008
o Article history