By Bernard Rowan
During the 21st century's latest war, histrionic statements abound. Russia's latest invasion of Ukraine doesn't amoun to a "do-or-die" moment for democracy. It's a real wakeup call, but still. Leaders of stable democracies shouldn't entertain this conflict as an end-all moment for the future of stability and peace in our world. The conflict should arrest the democratic tendency to idealism. We now begin a long march to renew the world era of freedom, democracy and civilization. We begin again to face autocracy.
The Biden administration and European allies play a dangerous, if necessary, game in aiding Ukraine. Putin's depletion of Russian power amounts to the same. His regime's survival is in the breach. However, total conflict claims ramp false salience; half-suspecting populations should not involve their scarce power blithely. Opposition politicians, real or self-supposed, suggest no-fly zones and other actions that amount to acts of war. In the new nuclear age, calculations of avoiding nuclear winter aren't surds.
Europeans, Americans, many global allies ― and Ukrainians most especially ― are rising to the challenge of defending freedom and autonomy. The Putinesque autocracy sadly grips the Russian people ― and Belarus. Mariupol and the genocide occurring in Ukraine make lies of Putin's claims of defense against Nazism. This tragedy reminds all that human nature and society haven't transcended war.
We also mustn't fail to take measure of the conflict's broader threats. We must aid Ukraine. Putin will continue to covet countries and peoples as a "Putin not the Great" ― "Huzzah" not! We must fortify and further form the global order for the sake of stability and peace long term.
Degrading Russia's capacity to wage war is now a stated aim of the Alliance for Freedom. This is inadequate if necessary. Russia has already ceded away its implicit claim to Eastern European countries as neutral or unaligned "buffers." As a 2021 article by James Rogers for the Foreign Policy Centre ("Countering Authoritarianism," Oct. 19, 2021) points out, Europeans and Americans almost knew this was coming. The forming bipolarity wants drawing more lines than the romantic and wishful stories about China and Russia predicted at the turn of the century. There's no sign they'll be coming round the mountain on the side of international harmony and peace. And there are friends stepping at present to their counter-harmonies, including North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Facing autocracy must include a consolidation of the forming bipolarity in a hard sense. The Alliance for Freedom needs to realize that global supply chains shouldn't stand like hostages for the Axis of Autocracy, threatened by Chinese or other constructions. This means securing redundant supply lines and shoring up resource provision and access. Nations that choose to spurn the liberal democratic global system don't deserve to join in.
The G7 and G20 should expel Russia, which has no legitimacy as a nation-state. I don't think the Indonesians' invite helps. China's less and less silent by-standing puts the lie to its commitments for a peaceful international order and openness to different political cultures.
The Alliance for Freedom must begin to innovate energy and technological alternatives to crowd out autocratic supply chains. To divide the global supply chain matrices into camps isn't good enough. However, China and Russia don't have playing fair in the sandbox as part of their purposes. Whether, as Rogers points out, it's anti-systemic (Russia) or counter-systemic energy (China), it's not for nations committed to freedom and democracy to continue the charade of the last 40 years.
Truly, autocratic powers never upheld their trumpeted doctrines of noninterference. They have used covert and overt means to destabilize the Alliance for Freedom. Why should we continue to hold out hope the Chinese Communist Party or Kim Jong-un's regime or Putin's kleptomania will end? We must apply prudent and consistent action to shore up democratic nations and their potentials. This includes access to the world's resources and financial flows. It includes substantial mutual investments in developing global democracies. It's well past time to face the Axis of Autocracy. Now remains the time, nonetheless.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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The Biden administration and European allies play a dangerous, if necessary, game in aiding Ukraine. Putin's depletion of Russian power amounts to the same. His regime's survival is in the breach. However, total conflict claims ramp false salience; half-suspecting populations should not involve their scarce power blithely. Opposition politicians, real or self-supposed, suggest no-fly zones and other actions that amount to acts of war. In the new nuclear age, calculations of avoiding nuclear winter aren't surds.
Europeans, Americans, many global allies ― and Ukrainians most especially ― are rising to the challenge of defending freedom and autonomy. The Putinesque autocracy sadly grips the Russian people ― and Belarus. Mariupol and the genocide occurring in Ukraine make lies of Putin's claims of defense against Nazism. This tragedy reminds all that human nature and society haven't transcended war.
We also mustn't fail to take measure of the conflict's broader threats. We must aid Ukraine. Putin will continue to covet countries and peoples as a "Putin not the Great" ― "Huzzah" not! We must fortify and further form the global order for the sake of stability and peace long term.
Degrading Russia's capacity to wage war is now a stated aim of the Alliance for Freedom. This is inadequate if necessary. Russia has already ceded away its implicit claim to Eastern European countries as neutral or unaligned "buffers." As a 2021 article by James Rogers for the Foreign Policy Centre ("Countering Authoritarianism," Oct. 19, 2021) points out, Europeans and Americans almost knew this was coming. The forming bipolarity wants drawing more lines than the romantic and wishful stories about China and Russia predicted at the turn of the century. There's no sign they'll be coming round the mountain on the side of international harmony and peace. And there are friends stepping at present to their counter-harmonies, including North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Facing autocracy must include a consolidation of the forming bipolarity in a hard sense. The Alliance for Freedom needs to realize that global supply chains shouldn't stand like hostages for the Axis of Autocracy, threatened by Chinese or other constructions. This means securing redundant supply lines and shoring up resource provision and access. Nations that choose to spurn the liberal democratic global system don't deserve to join in.
The G7 and G20 should expel Russia, which has no legitimacy as a nation-state. I don't think the Indonesians' invite helps. China's less and less silent by-standing puts the lie to its commitments for a peaceful international order and openness to different political cultures.
The Alliance for Freedom must begin to innovate energy and technological alternatives to crowd out autocratic supply chains. To divide the global supply chain matrices into camps isn't good enough. However, China and Russia don't have playing fair in the sandbox as part of their purposes. Whether, as Rogers points out, it's anti-systemic (Russia) or counter-systemic energy (China), it's not for nations committed to freedom and democracy to continue the charade of the last 40 years.
Truly, autocratic powers never upheld their trumpeted doctrines of noninterference. They have used covert and overt means to destabilize the Alliance for Freedom. Why should we continue to hold out hope the Chinese Communist Party or Kim Jong-un's regime or Putin's kleptomania will end? We must apply prudent and consistent action to shore up democratic nations and their potentials. This includes access to the world's resources and financial flows. It includes substantial mutual investments in developing global democracies. It's well past time to face the Axis of Autocracy. Now remains the time, nonetheless.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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