Xi-Putin Summit and Great Changes of World Order

The historic Xi-Putin summit in Moscow last week gives hope to the international community for the stabilization of the international situation and for a new world order. Many say that for too long the United States and its NATO war machine have run rampant destabilizing Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The Moscow summit continues the work of the historic Xi-Putin summit held in Beijing last year.  The two major powers are acting in concert in a rapidly changing international situation.

As President Xi Jinping put it when bidding farewell to President Putin, “Right now there are changes the likes of which we have not seen for 100 years.”  He added, “And we are the ones driving these changes together.”  President Vladimir Putin responded, “I agree.”

Rise of the Global Majority

The changes the two leaders referred to involve the declining roles of the United States and Europe in world affairs and the rise of the “Global South”. The Global South, also called the “Global Majority”, represents the majority of humans on this earth. Some estimates say the Global Majority accounts for almost 90 percent of the world population.

At the United Nations, the Western countries influence the votes of roughly 50 countries. On the other hand, some 140 votes reflect the Global South.

The United States and the United Kingdom have dominated the West since World War II. The so-called “Five Eyes” security alliance comprises the English-speaking U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Transatlantic and transnational elites support the “Anglo-Saxons” in their global hegemony.

But the changes President Xi referred to are already in motion. Just as a new world order emerged after World War I, so today a new world order is emerging.

As former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently said, “The dictate of the Anglo-Saxon countries is over.”

Joint efforts to counter hegemony

President Xi and Putin have made it clear that their goal is to jointly work toward a multipolar world order. This means combining to rebuff and to limit the present global hegemon and its NATO war machine.

When I taught International Relations, my students learned about the traditional “balance of power” theory. This theory, based on Western history going back to ancient Greece, holds that countries will form coalitions against hegemonic powers. These coalitions would then work together to limit an overbearing hegemon. Examples of such alignments are found in those organized against Louis XIV, Napoleon, the German Kaiser, and Hitler.

In light of balance of power theory, it is no surprise that China and Russia as major powers are cooperating to balance against the U.S. and its NATO war machine in order that a new world order can be established. This new order emphasizes peaceful coexistence, international law, justice, and equality of states.

Ideally, the United Nations should play a major role in the international system. But, over the years, the workings of the UN have been severely impaired by Washington. The organization is in dire need of reform and renewal to fulfill its responsibility to promote peace, development, international cooperation, and international law.

The U.S. as a disruptive rogue state

It is tragic that the United States has departed so far from the vision of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers. It is not surprising that many in the international community wonder what has happened to the United States since the days of Franklin Roosevelt and World War II. Why has it become a rogue state?

The answer is that the U.S. foreign policy elite saw itself as replacing the British Empire rather than sticking to its tradition as a strong republic. The primary driver of modern imperialism is, of course, finance capitalism which Hobson, Lenin, and others described well.

The United States thus became a rogue state spreading its empire across the world. President Putin has referred to the U.S. and the West as implementing policies of “neocolonialism”. President Xi often refers to the challenge of hegemony.

As a rogue state since World War II, the United States, in effect, has behaved as Napoleon and others noted earlier.

In a letter to a friend back in June 1815, Thomas Jefferson was realistic in his assessment of Napoleon and the European situation. “I still deprecate his becoming sole lord of the continent of Europe, which he would have been had he reached in triumph the gates of Petersburg. The establishment, in our day, of another Roman empire, spreading vassalage and depravity over the face of the globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes of heaven.”

Jefferson went on to say, “for my part I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce and friendship may be sought and cultivated by all.”

Toward a new world order

The two leaders Xi and Putin in their recent summit built on their historic summit in Beijing last year. Their statements this year clearly reflect their shared perspective and commitments embodied in last year’s February 4 Joint Statement. They seek to cooperate and to build a new multipolar world order based on international law, fairness, justice and equality of states. In short, a democratic international system.

President Xi, back in 2013 at the informal California summit with President Barack Obama, offered Washington a “new type of major power relations.” The Obama administration rejected the offer. Susan Rice who was the National Security Advisor (2013-2017) to Obama today works in the White House for Biden. Biden as well as President Donald Trump also rejected China’s offer.

Today, China and Russia closely cooperate on the basis of a new type of major power relations which they are demonstrating to the world. For both countries close cooperation is required to deter the existential threat from the U.S. hegemon and its NATO war machine. Such cooperation also advances economic and social development in both countries and to an international community with a shared future.

Beijing and Moscow know full well that Washington’s malign Cold War mentality drives the present war against Russia and drives the preparations for a future war against China. Beijing and Moscow know that the White House and Congress consider China and Russia as “enemies”.  They both can see that Washington is in a state of hysteria and delusion.

It is no surprise, as undergraduate students in International Relations would predict, that China and Russia are strengthening their coalition against the hegemonic forces led by Washington and its rogue empire.

The foreign policy of the appallingly incompetent Washington administrations since George W Bush (2001-2009) has led the U.S. into a dead end. The U.S. is disintegrating internally economically, socially, and culturally. The present faltering U.S. leadership has no realistic vision.

For the sake of its own people, and for the sake of a peaceful world and mankind, the United States must radically change its course or World War III looms, as some observers warn.

The article reflects the author’s opinions, and not necessarily the views of China Focus.