◄ | WAR AND PEACE |
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The Nexus Institute invited thirteen international politicians, diplomats, historians and thinkers to discuss on those questions. James Fallon told a newspaper that After the Cold War, you could see all kinds of people wanted to be independent. In the Balkans, East Timor. Many countries, including mine, embraced it. The right to freedom for all. We were naive, we ignored practice: could these entities stand on theirown? The former Soviet republics that belonged since the revolution the Soviet Empire, including Ukraine, were after independence often badly governed and corrupt countries. We are victims of our desires. It's a better way to give up some of our desire for freedom for the benefit of the public interest. Now, weeds insert everywhere its head. |
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The Great Game in Ukraine is Spinning out of Control |
Jeffrey D. Sachs | September 28, 2022 | OtherNews
Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a "geopolitical pivot" of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the war in Ukraine is rapidly escalating to a nuclear showdown. It's urgent for both the US and Russia to exercise restraint before disaster hits. Since the middle of the 19th Century, the West has competed with Russia over Crimea and more specifically, naval power in the Black Sea. In the Crimean War (1853-6), Britain and France captured Sevastopol and temporarily banished Russia's navy from the Black Sea. The current conflict is, in essence, the Second Crimean War. This time, a US-led military alliance seeks to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia, so that five NATO members would encircle the Black Sea. The US has long regarded any encroachment by great powers in the Western Hemisphere as a direct threat to US security, dating back to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which states: "We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those [European] powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." In 1961, the US invaded Cuba when Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro looked to the Soviet Union for support. The US was not much interested in Cuba's "right" to align with whichever country it wanted – the claim the US asserts regarding Ukraine's supposed right to join NATO. The failed US invasion in 1961 led to the Soviet Union's decision to place offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962, which in turn led to the Cuban Missile Crisis exactly 60 years ago this month. That crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Russian President Boris Yeltsin protested vociferously but could do nothing to stop it. America's dean of statecraft with Russia, George Kennan, declared that NATO expansion "is the beginning of a new cold war." President John F. Kennedy learned about nuclear confrontation during the Cuban missile crisis. He defused that crisis not by force of will or US military might, but by diplomacy and compromise, removing US nuclear missiles in Turkey in exchange for the Soviet Union removing its nuclear missiles in Cuba. The following year, he pursued peace with the Soviet Union, signing the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. |
conference 'WAR and PEACE |
The first panel debated on the international organizations created to turn off war. Who now have the power, and how they deal with their power? The second panel discussed on hope for peace. Can cultural development, civilization and love counterbalance war? How can we learn what love is in a society that is often so uncharitable again? |
Guehenno:
'NATO needs to tone down regarding Ukraine. If we raise expectations and then disappoint, we create real danger.
'Idealism is realism! To ignore the power of ideas is very dangerous.' 'If we can't define who we are, others will define us, and this is what got us into the trouble we are in now.'
'Freedom is the fundamental issue, and I believe it must have content; and since 1989, we have only seen a vacuum.' |
Ignatieff and Cooper: 'What is the politics of peace?' - 'There is none. The only thing is not to begin war. |
Margalit: 'Talking about wars in general is not talking about anything at all. Today's wars are civil and particular. |
Shevtsova: 'The West pretends nothing is happening in Ukraine, avoiding the word "war".' 'If I were in the Oval Office, I would make Ukraine an American ally without waiting for the NATO.' 'Putin was the first to cross all the red lights.' |
Diner: 'Looking back to the 19th century, I feel uncomfortable about France and Germany left alone in the continent.' |
Rubin:
'We have to defend the Baltics by drawing the line and showing Putin now.' 'Ukraine is about an old threat, an old problem: a big place called Russia, that broke all the rules of the game.' 'Its a horrible thing done by a fascist regime in Damascus, and the US did nothing. That's the other side of the pendulum . 'Whatever you think of Saddam Hussein, the military operation was performed badly and the US lost respect.' |
Wolfowitz: Putin is now demonstrating the effectiveness of military power, and that is what makes him so dangerous. 'Think much that we feared would be the result of arming the Syrian opposition, has happened because we did not. 'We would do better to deal with the dangers in the world than to run away from them.' 'In Syria, the US seems to have hesitated for too long in fear of another Iraq-type situation.' 'The world is still a dangerous place we, the US, need to worry about.' 'Most troubling of all have been Putin's dealings in Ukraine.' 'The west can take a bit of credit for progress in the world.' 'The west walked away and left Libya to Islamist groups'. 'It was premature to declare an Arab Spring, but it is premature now to declare an Arab Winter.' 'Indonesia's democratic transition has been more successful than Egypt's due to its civil society'. 'The world today is much more prosperous and free than it was 50 years ago.' 'Too often, we seem to think that the threat of force is something that only comes into play when negotiations fail'. |
Ignatieff: A world of 200 states that don't kill others and don't kill themselves, that's something, that's a better world.' 'Every time we stop war from happening, we win an important victory.' 'I teach human rights and I think these enlightenment ideals cannot be agreed on. It is a battle from beginning to end. |
Mneimneih: 'We are living in the illusion that we still live in a framework of shared values. |
Ishii: 'I still believe US is indispensable in international conflicts, but not sufficient. We need a group of leaders |
Cooper: 'In Western Europe we had 70 years of peace, and for this we have to thank America. |
Azam Zanganeh: 'The real challenge today for peace is to believe in the universal ideal and value born in Enlightenment Europe. |