The Ukrainian Conflict Shows the Importance of Non-Western Alternatives
Observers can expect the Global South to work more closely together towards this shared goal of ensuring their sovereignty in the face of America’s illegal sanctions threats. Russia, China, and India will lead the way and help liberate humanity from these neo-imperial shackles.
The global consequences of Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine are still being assessed but most already expect them to be profound based on everything that’s happened thus far since the conflict began on 24 February. The US-led West imposed unprecedented sanctions against Moscow and also intensified its information warfare campaign against it to an unprecedented extreme. All of this has resulted in putting that major country under considerable full-spectrum pressure.
The most direct effect is that Russia has been forcibly “decoupled” from the US-led West in almost every way except for its continued energy trade with the EU, but even that’s under threat and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Western banks have frozen that country’s foreign assets, sanctioned their Russian counterparts, and Western companies have suspended their operations there too if not outright pulled out of that market. This has prompted very serious questions about Russia’s macroeconomic stability.
To its credit, the Kremlin already has some alternatives in place such as a domestic analogue of the SWIFT banking system. Russia is also mostly self-sufficient in basic goods and services. Furthermore, the currency controls that were put into place have kept domestic prices from spiking, which has in turn contributed to maintaining political stability at home. All told, Russia is impressively handling this crisis very well, much better than many Western observers expected.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian Conflict shows the importance of non-Western alternative platforms and systems that can’t be meddled with by America and its vassals to put pressure on other countries like they just did to Russia. The dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, which is also used for purchasing petroleum from the energy-rich countries of the Gulf, can easily be weaponized like the latest events have proven. This should seriously concern countries across the Global South.
They too have found themselves coming under various forms of pressure from the US-led West in recent years, be it former US President Donald Trump’s unprovoked trade war against China or NATO’s War on Libya in 2011, among countless other examples. The US’ unilateral sanctions against Iran and its associated “secondary sanctions” threats against those who don’t comply with these illegal economic restrictions should also be kept in mind too, not to mention everything that’s just happened to Russia.
There’s never been a better time for the Global South to unite in pioneering alternative platforms and systems in defense of their sovereign rights as enshrined in the UN Charter. China has been leading the way in many respects but more work must be done and it can’t be entirely completed by any single country alone. This requires a truly international effort in order to break the US-led West’s neo-imperial shackles that it’s wrapped around the Global South in order to de facto enslave it.
No country anywhere in the world is safe from becoming “the next Russia” so to speak after the US-led West just showed that it’ll impose unprecedented punishments against those that proudly defend their interests instead of submitting to what they regard as unacceptable threats to their national security red lines. It’s not just alternative economic and financial channels that are needed, but insurance and logistics ones too that few ever really think about, among others.
For instance, Western companies dominate the global insurance industry and continue to command powerful influence over the logistics one. Western companies have refused to insure Russian airliners, which puts the future of its industry in jeopardy. Russia also cannot take all of its international logistics networks for granted either after Ukraine called on its Western partners to blockade its neighbor, which they’ve thus far refused to do but of course can’t be ruled out in the worst-case scenario.
Seeing as how the accelerated development of alternative platforms and systems is among the highest national priorities for Russia in light of recent events, the Global South can expect that country to be a reliable partner in these joint efforts for liberating those countries from the West’s neo-imperial shackles. Fellow BRICS countries China and India are interested in this as well, as are all those like Pakistan, Iran, and others who also refused to sanction Russia under Western pressure.
This means that the majority of humanity is against the US-led West’s Hybrid War on Russia since they also know very well that they too might become the declining unipolar hegemon’s next victim. For these reasons, observers can expect the Global South to work more closely together towards this shared goal of ensuring their sovereignty in the face of America’s illegal sanctions threats. Russia, China, and India will lead the way and help liberate humanity from these neo-imperial shackles.
