It's More than the Middle East

From The Times

February 15, 2007

Giants meet to counter US power

Jeremy Page in Delhi

India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.

It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.

…

One area of agreement is opposition to outside interference in separatist conflicts in Chechnya, the northeast of India and the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Another is energy. India and China are desperate for Russian oil and gas, and Moscow is worried about its dependence on Western markets. But their most significant common ground is opposition to US military intervention in Iran. The joint statement did not mention Iran, but the three countries have taken a common stance in calling for a negotiated solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of them wants a nuclear-armed Iran, but Russia sells Tehran nuclear technology and India and China need Iranian gas.

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We are entering a very dangerous time. China, along with Japan, is the largest creditor nation to the United States, providing much of the previously unbudgeted costs for the Iraq War. India’s rapid ascent into the first world will only create greater competition amongst the developed world for energy. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin may be the most powerful man on Earth, as he establishes a new Russian autocracy that gives him dangerous levels of control over his nation.

The idea that America can act unilaterally without concern for the anxieties expressed against its foreign policies is no longer valid. Our excursions into Middle East imperialism are eroding American strength threefold: by creating a significant us vs. them scenario with the other world powers, which affects trade in valuable commodities (most notably energy), and causing a coalescence of world powers tired of being disregarded as irrelevant; by placing the United States in compromising positions in which in a dispute, nations in direct competition with us can call for repayment of debts owed (possibly crashing our economy); and by handicapping the functional abilities of what was the most powerful military on Earth.

It is precisely because of this position of weakness that others view an opportunity to challenge the status of U.S. hegemony. Should we choose to invade or bomb Iran, irreparable damage may be caused not only with these nations, but Europe as well. The unfortunate irony for the Bush Administration is that our persistence on displaying our strength in response to the completely unrelated event of 9/11 has only gone to compromise the status of American Empire.

However, if China and Russia were truly interested in a more democratic management of global tensions, then their steadfast refusal to consider reforming the structure of the United Nations Security Council is blatantly hypocritical. At least Bush makes no pretense of caring what other nations (or his own people) think.