The need to be ‘top dog’ globally (an ambition never ever achieved by any human leader or people) results in contradictions in policies and in inter-country relationships. Behaviour contrary to the teachings of the founder of its religion (refer to the killings, torture, and so on – on and off the battlefields), the politically – if not morally – incompatible partnership with despots, and the attempted rearrangements of regime leaderships are juxtaposed in an admirable manner with protection of peoples here and there all over the world. The new emperor is pragmatic.
The extracts below from ‘On empires – gone & going’ in ‘Musings at Death’s Door’ are self-explanatory. The hope for the small and middle-sized dogs in the paddock is for a minimum of 3 large dogs to be present, working together as required to keep out attackers, and keeping one another in check.
“ Ethnic cleansing, like ‘rendering’-with-torture, and assassination are acceptable, but only in the interests of protecting Western democracy. Australian politicians who visit Israel without being able to notice the plight of state¬less Palestinians couldn’t possibly have any concern with this view of the Middle East of the future.
Thus, acceptable democracy in these nations of interest to the West is one with tribal leadership either adequately constrained or destroyed. The desired tribes are political parties. The good news is that there is no intended destruction of native cultures. The bad news is that, without occupying each country of interest, tribalism will continue. Perhaps we can pay the tribal leaderships to give us what we need … …!
How long will this new empire last? Since it is only about 60 years old, who can tell? Through its Monroe Doctrine, the USA assumed indirect control of South and Central America a long time ago. Would the US now install Monroe Mark 2 to keep any rising power away from its current spheres of interest? If so, how?
Realism requires us to accept that the Western world needs a strong USA to counter China, were this nation to enter into a payback mode; that is, to reprimand all those nations which sought to obtain a foothold on its home territory in an earlier century. Those incursions caused great damage to the people and their heritage.
But then the Western world needs not only the USA but also a friendly China and a united Europe (including Russia) to contain militant Islam’s growth. Were Islam to take over the world, what would happen to the liquor industry, the Christianising industry, the prostitution industry, and the usury industry? However, since the nations of Europe seem incapable of burying their sectarian or other ethno-cultural differences, one can only hope that the Sunni-Shia divide is like the Rift Valley of Africa.”
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 