Asif khan Nasar
Due to the decline of traditional Democratic values, now, the world is preferring the autocratic form of Govt—China and Russia are examples of it.
After world war II, fifty countries decided to make an organization that prevents wars; they made United Nations Organization now 193 members are part of this organization, and every year, in September where they moot global issues, such as international security, global issues, climate change, terrorism, etc. The allies had remembered the valor Soviet Union when it hoisted its flag over the Reichstag building on May 2, 1945, and the hoisting-flag victory allowed the allies to be permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
So, now the questions are 1. Is the world of unilateral power becoming multilateral? 2. Does the United Nations Organizations (UNO) have done their job well or the decision and resolutions are being made only for UNSC permanent members? 3. Will, only, economic sanctions stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine? These questions are all related to the contest of the appetite of major countries for becoming a new ‘HEGEMON.’ Due to the declining of traditional Democratic values, now, the world is preferring the autocratic form of Govt—China and Russia are examples of it.
The reasons are superfluous in numbers that why the world politics and status quo of hegemony has been challenged in the past Years: to begin with, the war against terror is one of the main reasons where the consequences of it challenging the status quo of the USA. Human costs, from 2001-2021, are reported by Watson institute for international and public affairs brown university that more than three lacs only civilians have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and other countries since the war against terror.
Moving forward, the contradiction of ideological differences among superpowers. Since the fall of the soviet union in 1991, the idea of socialism was not fully vanished since the gap of income inequality between the proletariat and the bourgeoise is remain ever-rising in the history of humans, Noble laureate David Card, the noble prize was awarded for his empirical contribution in the labor market, have proved that increase in minimum wages couldn’t affect the employment—before that, Economist believed that rising minimum wages would surge unemployment of the state. This study illustrates that the current economic system and its policies have only inclined towards those who hold more wealth at the expense of the lower class.
Furthermore, the slow phase of deglobalization, due to Covid-19, has challenged the liberal democracy of the world— the assertion of Donald Trump that the covid-19 is a Chinese virus while China has been appreciated for his philanthropic maneuver by providing vaccines, masks, ventilators, etc. Imposition on traveling, trade, and making money from medicines, as in the case of covid-19, provoked people against the USA and its World order.
Moreover, As the clock ticking, the desirous Soviet Union wants to be a hegemon—they believe in soviet supremacy. And the world saw it when Afghanistan was meddled with by the Soviet Union, after the Saur revolution in 1979. Russia is one of the staunch rivals of USA. When the Prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, visited Russia on 24th February 2022, on the same day, Russia invaded Ukraine—ironically, in the same month of February the president of the United National Security Council (UNSC) was chaired by Russia and not passed any such resolution because of Veto power. Russia isn’t a part of the European Union; economic sanctions on Russia surged Europe into a shortage of fuel, and gas because Russia is the main exporter of crude oil to Europe—an average of 4.2 million barrels per day of crude oil were exported by Russia while Europe was importing total 7.9 million barrel per day in 2021. Also, Eurostat 2019 report said that the EU imports 41.6 percent of natural gas and 46.7 percent of solid fuel from Russia. Romain Rolland once said, “I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.” Even now Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, seems the reluctant behavior of a beleaguered hegemon. The turmoil and turbulence in Ukraine and Russia have put the USA, NATO, EU, and UNO in severe difficulty. Lastly, the tenacity and the steadfast relationship between India and Russia is very well known since its inception. Russia took aside India by using Veto power in UNSC on the Kashmir issue in 1949 and 1962. India also abstained himself in UNSC and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) from voting. Russia has also had economic and military ties with India for a very long time. One of the peace research organizations, STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SIPRI), reported that Russia is the world’s second-largest arms exporter, behind the US, accounting for roughly 20% of global weapons sales whereas, from 2016-to 2020, India ranked 1st in arms import from Russia —approximately importing $6.6billion of arms from Russia. India wouldn’t please the USA at the expense of Russia. To cut a long story short, world politics is metamorphosizing and reshaping its contours due to the contradiction among the various civilizations and ideas—we are moving back to regional blocs. The USA faces these threats to its hegemony. If the USA and United Nations, without biasness and inclination, do come not with ultimate solutions for developing and third world countries, the world might see a long nightmare in forthcoming.
