Today We All Live in Times of Great Change and Upheaval
The period of relative stability is over and now the world is in chaos, where everybody is trying to resolve his/her problems on his/her own. Humanity is facing new challenges and threats, but no one knows how to overcome them.
Russia’s aggressive foreign policy, which culminated in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, deserves special attention. The lack of a proper international response to the aggressor’s clearly criminal and illegal actions is a clear indication of the complete destruction of the international legal order and the absolute incapacity and helplessness of all international organizations, including the UN.
Yesterday, on the night of September 6–7, the Russian military committed another crime in full view of the entire humanity. Since the Russians cannot defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield, they have once again decided to resort to mass terrorization of the civilian population of Ukraine. Last night’s missile and drone attacks on Kyiv, Kremenchuk, Dnipro, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih ended up hitting only civilian objects. It is especially sad to hear about the deaths of innocent and completely defenseless civilians in our cities and villages. For example, in Kyiv, a young mother and her two-month-old child were killed in a Russian attack last night. But the Russian terrorists, maddened by their weakness and powerlessness, have already begun killing not only people but also animals. Yesterday, in a village in Kyiv region, they attacked a breeding horse farm and killed seven horses. The poor animals tried to run away and hide from the shelling, but after the third targeted strike by a Russian UAV, they all died.
These are just two of the latest facts that are vivid evidence of the criminal activities of Putin and his henchmen. It is obvious that Russian terrorists have chosen the scorched earth tactic and are trying to destroy infrastructure and all life on the territory of Ukraine.
At the same time, world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are calmly hosting the international terrorist and war criminal Putin and conducting some kind of negotiations with him. From all this, we can conclude that international law no longer exists and now everybody is fighting for themselves and surviving as best they can. If so, then Orban and Fico have no reason to be offended by Zelenskyy and make claims against Ukraine for launching drone strikes on the “Druzhba” gas pipeline. Ukrainians have been fighting for their freedom and independence for four years now, and they have the right to strike at all Russian strategic targets, primarily those that enable them to support their economy and continue the war. Therefore, the Hungarians and Slovaks should have questions not to the Ukrainians for the damage to the “Druzhba” pipeline, but to the Russians who unleashed this unprovoked, brutal, and bloody war.
Now to the place and role of the United States in today’s global world. The policies of the current US President Donald Trump and his constant flirtation with Putin give reason to doubt that America wants to remain the leader of the democratic world.
The recent meeting of authoritarian leaders in China is also a cause for concern, as it indicates the birth of a new anti-Western political force on a global scale.
In this regard, European leaders have begun to question the reliability of the United States and NATO’s capability of defending them in case of Russia’s armed attack on an EU country.
While Western Europe still has some time to think, the states of Central and Eastern Europe are already thinking about how to practically confront the Russian armed forces in the event of a full-scale invasion.
Recently, Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova held a forum in Chernivtsi called the “Odesa Triangle” to discuss important issues of trilateral cooperation, including in the security sphere.
Lately, international political circles have begun to talk more often about the need to create a new regional security association of states that could include all interested countries in the Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian-Adriatic region. In this regard, the media began to publish articles by various authors about new regional security initiatives to implement the “Intermarium” security project.
In the field of global politics, many questions arise today that have not yet been answered. What will happen next and what path will humanity take? Will we face total anarchy, where everyone is for himself and everyone is fighting against everyone? Or maybe the world will be divided into clusters, which will include states with common interests? Perhaps we will witness humanity reaching a new level of globalization, but then a number of important questions arise, including the possibility of unifying moral, ethical and legal norms and creating a single international legal space. If the answer to this question is yes, then which body should be responsible for ensuring compliance with the global legal order and is it necessary to create a supranational body in the form of a single world government?
Humanity will need to give clear and unambiguous answers to all these questions in the near future, but today, despite their importance and relevance, they still remain open.
Oleh Bereziuk,
Institute for Global Politics
