AMID the ongoing war in Gaza –accompanied by the humanitarian crises, Russia and China share an “aspiration for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation,” which includes “respecting civilization diversity and the right of every state for their own development model” In his speech at the BRI opening ceremony (18 October), Putin hailed Xi’s flagship foreign policy Belt and Road Initiative as “aiming to form a fairer, multi-polar world,” while touting his country’s deep alignment with China. In the face of rising “hegemonism and unilateralism”, Xi-Putin vision of a new world order shares focus on multilateral projects — having more elements of stability and certainty into today’s world order.
Evolution of West’s new world order: in the aftermath of the second World War, the US and its western partners established the so-called liberal international order,” through the incorporation of a Marshall Plan and new multilateral institutions like the United Nations, the World Bank and IMF, NATO, the European Union and others. During this period of the Cold War, the world was divided into a bipolar world. With the end of the Cold War period in 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall), the international liberal order had labelled the US as the only unilateral power. Substantially, this order was profoundly focused on the enlargement of the European Union (EU), as well as The North Treaty Organization (NATO). Whereas, subsequent to the Post 9/11 world, a new geopolitical trajectory emerged on the global scene, thereby marking a civilizational divide along the lines of Samuel Huntington’s propelled theory of the clash of civilizations.
This period has seen a glaring western tilt towards the realpolitik. The most important feature of this world order is NATO’s eastward expansion—which Russia considers a great threat to its security. Moreover, in the post 9/11 era, the US security doctrine against terrorism dominated the contours of the US foreign policy, thereby also giving more space to ‘’incorporate anti-Semitic narratives’’ based on the notions such as George Soros and the Rothschild family– also referred to “the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”(controlling global agendas) while pivoting towards the belief that Jewish people control major financial and media institutions around the world. Currently, the ongoing war in Gaza and the unwarranted western backing of Israel is suffice to understand this trajectory.
As both the US and Europe seem uninterested to profoundly engage in order-building with China and Russia and other major non-western actors, particularly the Muslim states-currently endorsed by the ongoing unholy and horrendous events of Israel-led war in Gaza, all this is suggestive of the view that the coming decades, a new revisionist world order backed by other international actors –China and Russia will emerge on the global scene.
China-Russia tapestry of a revisionist world order: Being highly enraged with the US-orchestrated two features– of the present world order—unipolarity and universality, which give America too much power, Russians and the Chinese are determined to change that western trajectory. Russia has criticised the United States President Joe Biden’s assertion that Washington must be the driving force in a new “World Order”, saying such an “American-centric” vision is outdated. In his speech at the BRI anniversary opening ceremony, Putin hailed Xi’s flagship foreign policy Belt and Road Initiative as “aiming to form a fairer, multi-polar world,” while touting his country’s deep alignment with China. The newly conceived China-Russia world order is based on three important principles.
1-Economic connectivity: While connectivity is much discussed in current policy parlance—particularly in the context of different “connectivity strategies” pursued by China‘s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Symbolizing communication and cooperation between the East and the West, the millennia-old silk routes demonstrated that by upholding solidarity and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning and win-win cooperation, countries of different ethnic groups, beliefs and cultural backgrounds could share peace and achieve development together. The BRI philosophy is meant to uphold the Chinese credo of global harmony and peace by promoting amity, good neighbourliness and “helping others. It is here that Beijing focuses on economic sustainability-cum- global connectivity.
2-Global security: Currently Beijing has hosted defence officials from across the world for its flagship military diplomacy conference this week – a key opportunity for Beijing to promote its alternative vision for global security– aligning with Moscow against the United States. More than 30 defence ministers and military chiefs, as well as lower-level representatives from dozens more countries and organizations, including the US, gathered for the three-day Xiangshan Forum in the Chinese capital. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was given prominent billing as the first visiting official to address the forum where he and China’s keynote speaker both took aim at what they see as a failed US-led security system.
3-Civilisational diversity; as for the argument of the civilizational diversity, it is argued that all civilizations are respectful. The Chinese civilization has long advocated the great ideas promoting civilizational respect and harmony via unity in diversity. Thus, the Islamic civilization values peace and calls for tolerance. Arguably, civilizations can be different, but no civilization is superior to others. Each civilization embodies the common vision. In this backdrop, the ever expanding and deepening exchanges between China and the Arab world have not only enhanced our respective cultural prosperity and economic development, but also promoted interactions between the Eastern and Western civilizations.
To conclude, there can be no denying that the world today needs an understanding beyond civilizational ghettos and it needs to move forward in harmony— rather than in dissension– rebalancing the contours of geopolitics with that of humanitarian pursuits. The US and its western allies will have to co-exist with this geopolitical reality of a multilateral world order wherein China and Russia will play an instrumental role. Nevertheless, Israeli’s decades old policy of suppressing the Palestinian rights; while managing the conflict, through deterrence, building settlements and rapprochement with neighbouring Arab countries, has also proven a ‘’dangerous illusion’’. Israel’s Gaza- offensive has richly exposed the paradox of the US backed western order.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
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