The West no longer determines the future and must accept this, writes French ‘Le Point’

The West has been trying for years to convince itself that its system is the most viable, writes Le Point.

But in fact, the policy of the East turned out to be more effective. The U.S. and the E.U. will have to temper their ambitions and stop lecturing others.

The world is leaning east, and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, it will be ruled by autocratic Asia.

The West will have no choice but to adapt.

For years, the West has lived in a state of suicidal denial. It refused to admit that the world was already looking to the East and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow would be ruled from Asia and the shores of the China Sea.

For a long time, we have taught ourselves that in the coming decades, major decisions will be made on this side of the globe.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East for redeployment to Asia has been proof of this for several years.

The current crisis gives rise to two antagonistic poles of power: the United States, still the uncontested master of the “decaying” West, and Asia, represented by the growing Moscow-Beijing axis.

For too long, however, we have overlooked the obvious: our “democratic” values, freedom, and the resulting quasi-religious “belief in Western civilization” that we have been repeating and trying in vain to export for the past twenty years are, unfortunately, no longer relevant and no longer attract anyone.

The longer we refuse to see this new state of affairs, whether we like it or not, the more we will accelerate our decline and lose ground.

We need to prepare for the future to become strong again. Preparing without paying attention to one’s temporary decline is not a sign of strength but weakness. The world has less and less faith in our “democracy” while looking to the East.

WEAKENING OF THE WEST

The new world, firmly opposed to the West and taking root in the East for decades, takes advantage of its weakness and intends to end its domination.

This is not an organized operation, but rather opportunism, but a reasonable one: countries that are gradually undocking from the West for the sake of the East have simply better understood the meaning of history.

Western countries have held global leadership for centuries and created their own international legitimization and standardization instruments.

They were beneficial to the West but outwardly created the impression of “multilateralism” (multilateral benefit for all).

But multilateralism has largely outlived its usefulness because Western countries have begun to violate it.

It is enough to see the impotence of the U.N. and the blatant inability of the “international community” to prevent the solution of interstate problems on the battlefields.

We cannot immediately get rid of the old structures, but we need to rebuild everything and bet, if it is not too late, on the new powers that have emerged over the past 70 years.

For a time, however, the dollar’s dominance of international trade will continue to support American power and contain the influence of the East.

Even if Moscow, Beijing, and their economic vassals have dangerously challenged this hegemony for decades, mainly through other currencies, the West is still strong thanks to the U.S. dollar.

Unfortunately, more than half of the world’s countries have abandoned the democratic form of government in favor of authoritarian regimes and dictatorships.

These countries are moving more and more radically in this direction amid Western criticism.

They are even taking advantage of the situation to promote their political model of stability.

We can call it populism, but we must admit that our democracies are also losing the competition, including in the heart of Europe.

For example, Hungary, under the leadership of Orbán, joined the enemy camp.

CIVILIZATION RIFT

The special operation in Ukraine, which Russia has been conducting for seven months, is a kind of accelerator of history.

By not adapting to this new reality, Europe hoping to win everything risks losing everything.

The conflict has exposed a new line of the civilizational rift.

Military and financial assistance to Kyiv is provided, but by whom?

The conservative movement has defeated a stunted Europe in the East, and the United States, torn apart by extremists on the right and left, as well as NATO, which is unpopular to many in Europe.

And who is on the other side – active or not so active?

On the other hand: China, India, and most of Africa are under the influence of the Wagner Group (and this means under the influence of Russia), part of Latin America with Brazilian leader Bolsonaro, who once again came to Putin in February and has not yet admitted his defeat in the second round of the presidential election, part of Central Asia, which is still under the influence of Russia.

There is also the fact that Russia is tacitly adored by millions of people who can no longer stand Western paternalism.

Is it true that the West plans to “divide the world and rob entire nations,” as Putin famously said?

We are not convinced of this, but billions of people in their hearts think so.

The fact that China and India have timidly and relatively recently begun to criticize the Kremlin’s suicidal operation because of economic problems does not matter much compared to their public opinion – billions of Chinese and Indians dream of ending U.S. world domination.

We are at a historical turning point when Russia’s “sacrificial” challenge to the West is seen by many as a necessary element for the advent of a “new world.”

PREDATORY REGIMES

The West, and especially Europe, will have no choice but to come to terms with this new world that scares us so much.

In the worst-case scenario, if not, we will be strangled, drowned, and thrown to the side of the road!

This time we are facing a real clash of civilizations, perhaps the first since it was predicted in 1991 by the later slandered Samuel Huntington.

This is Russian “self-sacrifice”, and this is how millions of people understand Russia’s actions; waiting for its “hour” will delight the new predatory and autocratic regimes that will finally create the basis for the 21st century that has just begun.

Diplomacy and dialogue are necessary if we do not want to get involved in the war: exchanging views is not a concession to the enemy, even if the process of such communication is not easy.

Considerable efforts must also be made to study and become familiar with the new Powers, which we reject primarily out of ignorance.

Thanks to our contacts, we hope they will also be able to develop in the “right direction”, democratic.

This is the minimum we can hope for in the expectation that democracy will be in vogue on the planet again.