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The
Economic Crisis of the Western System A geopolitical Approach |
Tiberio GRAZIANI
(Italy) 22.05.2009 - Strategic
Culture Foundation |
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Tiberio
GRAZIANI is director of Eurasia.
Rivista di Studi geopolitici – Italy Source: World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations”. Dialogue in Prague: Rebuilding the European Model of Social Development Prague, Czech Republic, May 13-15, 2009 |
GLOBAL CRISIS OR WESTERN SYSTEM CRISIS?
Generally, we refer to the ongoing financial (but also economic and
industrial) earthquake as to a “global crisis”;
this is an expression which is true only partially and in some contexts.
But, if we analyse it from a geopolitical point of view, we see that
the financial disaster is, first of all, an inner crisis of the Western
System, which is generating some consequences in other geopolitical
areas.
In order to express this concept in a better way, it is worthwhile to
describe, concisely, what we mean by Western System and Global System
and analyse the role of the so-called globalisation process in the geopolitical
frame.
Definitions
1 — Western System (WS). From a geopolitical point of
view, we can state that the WS is constituted basically by US, Europe
(EU) and Japan (plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand). The central role
of this large geopolitical area is carried out by the US and its historical
special partner: Great Britain. EU and Japan (respectively the western
and the eastern sides of the Eurasian Continent) are the periphery of
this zone, with an important geostrategical function with respect to
the Eurasian landmass. In fact, since the end of the Second World War
and in the frame of US geopolitical doctrine, EU countries and Japan
constitute two symmetrical US bridgeheads having the peculiar function
of controlling Russia and China, the two lungs of Eurasia. Actually,
for historical, geographic and cultural reasons the natural geopolitical
position of Europe and Japan should be Eurasian, not Atlantic.
The control of the Eurasian landmass, which would bring about the hegemony
of US in the north hemisphere of the planet, has conditioned both the
foreign policy of Washington and the North American military industrial
system, particularly in the last few years.
According to Henry Kissinger the US is an island outside of Eurasia.
The former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State under President
Richard Nixon reckons that a unique Great Power hegemonizing Eurasia’s
two main spheres, Europe and Asia, would be a strategic danger for the
US. This kind of danger, Kissinger clarifies, must be averted, even
in the case that the supposed Great Power would not show aggressive
intentions, because, if these intentions become aggressive in future,
Washington could not determine the events, because the effectual resistance
capacity of the US has decreased. (Henry Kissinger, L’arte della
diplomazia, Sperling & Kupfer Editori, Milano 2006, pp. 634-635).
2 — Global System (GS). In the current geopolitical framework
this expression (originating from the Information Communication Technologies
lexicon) means the programmatic will of the Western System to hegemonize
the planet, mainly on financial, economic and technological basis. The
Global System has to be considered as a project; a goal to be reached
by means of the economic and financial competitiveness’ tools
and processes.
The architrave of the strategy aimed to the creation of a Global System
is the economic interdependence among the States at worldwide scale.
The attempt to create a Global System — at the financial level
— reflects the “political” intentions of great financial
groups.
3 — Globalisation. We agree with the definition given
by French economist Jacques Sapir “the so-called globalisation
is actually the combination of two processes. The first one is the world
extension of the capitalism — in its industrial form — to
areas that it had not yet touched. The second one, which is to a large
extent the implementation of US policy, corresponds to a voluntaristic
policy of financial and commercial opening” (Jacques Sapir,
Le nouveau XXI siécle, Paris, 2008, p. 63-64). In other words,
the role of the globalisation process has been a US strategy for the
world hegemony, during its “unipolar moment”.
The Western crisis and the new Multipolar System
All of us know that the so-called global financial crisis is, actually,
a cluster of several crises that, starting from the US, are now spreading
all over the planet, affecting national economies and, hence, impacting
their related social stabilities. Adopting a geopolitical perspective,
we can observe that the crisis, starting from the geopolitical centre
of the Western system, has first begun to propagate within its periphery,
mainly EU countries and Japan, and in a second phase has irradiated
to the eastern hemisphere of the globe. The speed and intensity of the
crisis’ spread is conditioned by the structural differences of
the countries targeted.
Moreover we see that the global (western) crisis occurs:
- during a geopolitical shift (from a unipolar to a multipolar system,
which seems to have its fundamental pillars in Eurasia and South America,
respectively in the north-eastern hemisphere and in south-western hemisphere
of the globe);
- in a specific economic frame, where new key players are emerging in
Asia (China and India), economically, financially and industrially;
- during the reaffirmation of Russia as global player and, above all,
as potential Eurasian pivot area.
In such a situation, the crisis could not only accelerate the transition
from a unipolar to a multipolar system, but also could consolidate it.
In fact, European countries, finally, should understand that their fundamental
and specific interests (energy supply, security, cultural development)
have a continental dimension and are strictly connected with Russian
and Asian ones. Within a Eurasian integrated context, Europe would find
its natural geopolitical posture, cooperating with these countries on
basis of parity. The European “peninsula” would
constitute a sort of hinge area between Asia and Africa and carried
out the role of the Eurasian port on the Atlantic Ocean.
The consolidation of the multipolar system requests the shifting of
the European countries from the passive peripheral role of the Western
System to an active one within the potentially emerging Eurasian integration.
The change of geopolitical posture of Europe is an essential condition
in order to overcome the ongoing crisis and build social stability,
coherently with its culture based on anti-individualistic principles.
Analogous signals seem to appear in Japan. Tokyo is more and more interested
in increasing political and economic relations with Beijing and New
Delhi, and, above all, in gaining an active role in partnership with
these two Asian countries, in the eastern area of the Eurasian landmass.
TENSIONS WITHIN THE WESTERN SYSTEM WITH RESPECT TO “HOW
TO OVERCOME THE CRISIS”
Referring to the solutions aimed at solving the crisis, we observe that
some important tensions have been arisen within the Western area. The
crisis, in other words, seems to unveil the deep differences between
Europe and US, with respect to their attitudes about economic matter
and social welfare. Paris and Berlin - even if they both are dominated
by Atlanticist governments (Sarkozy and Merkel are, in fact, the expression
of the neo-Atlanticist European oligarchy) - had to take into account
the fact that, structurally, the so-called neo-liberalist dynamics of
the European economies (apart from Great Britain) are based on the contradiction
between neo–liberalist behaviours and the practices inspired by
the principles of solidarity.
Behaviours and practices characterized by an attitude of solidarity
are, nowadays, still present in Continental and Mediterranean Europe
- despite the periodic and massive waves of ultra-liberalism occurred
during the last two decades and, above all, the recurrent warnings (more
often real threats or diktat than simple warnings) advanced by some
international economic organizations (among them: World Bank, International
Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, some private credit rating
agencies).
The solidarity-based attitude of European countries articulates itself
into several social institutions; among them we can mention (even if
partially privatised in the last years) those which aim at supporting
retired and unemployed people (social security), at providing some social
services (for instance, medical care), at supporting some strategic
companies and, particularly, SMEs which constitute - for some aspects
- the economic tissue of the whole European Union.
If we take into account what we have described in the last lines, we
understand better the discrepancy occurred – between US and EU
representatives- in the frame of the multilateral meetings devoted to
the “global” crisis.
Anyway, even if the marked differences (more regulations requested by
EU countries; more “free market” requested by US)
did not generate a “real” solution for the crisis,
(at least so far) and even if, in addition, they did not provoke a split
between US and EU countries, these differences have posed surely a big
problem inside the “western home”.
The Western System, administrated by the Atlanticist oligarchy, must
face the fact that its “peripheries” (EU countries
and Japan) are no longer so reliable as they were in the past, despite
the several military and economic treaties, the deep economic interdependence
and the presence of US military troops (NATO) widely spread out in Europe
and in Mediterranean Sea. Europe, in particular, could escape out of
the US control, if the north American economic strategy tries to put
the own debts of US on the shoulders of the European citizens.
The return to an economy “controlled” by the State
and the so-called protectionist measures undertaken by the US and some
European countries, far from being really political solutions, sound
more as selfish and opportunist temporary ways out, adopted by the western
ruling oligarchies. In other terms, this kind of escamotages, based
on the involvement of the State in the economic and financial fields,
have the clear aim of using the State to pay the debts provoked by irresponsible
speculation of some financial lobbies. There is neither a political
vision nor a solidarity-based vision of the economy, but, rather, the
neo-liberalistic exploitation of the national revenues and savings.
US finance needs the neo state-based economy just to take breath in
a particularly moment of its history.
The designed targets to pay the crisis are the peripheries of the western
system; i.e. Europe and Japan. These two geo-economic areas are characterized,
for historical reasons, by a still diffused familiar culture of saving,
which is completely missing in the US. Moreover their related economic
systems, even if free-market oriented and on neo-liberalist behaviours
based, still maintain some corporate characters. For different, but
analogous reasons, the two peripheries of the Western System should
face the crisis better than US.
THE EMERGING PLAYERS
The new global players (Russia, China and India) should face the global
crisis with less damage with respect to US and Europe.
Russia and China should react enough well to the tremor, triggered by
the financial speculation, mainly because of their political structures
and the steadiness of the respective central political powers. To a
certain extent, we can expect that the shock wave of the financial crisis
could break against the Eurasian wall constituted principally by China
and Russia. This is possible if Moscow and Beijing start carrying out
joint economic and monetary policies, in the very next future.
Concerning India, we think that New Delhi, in order to overcome the
crisis without deep damage, should balance the weakness of its own political
system by strengthening economic relations with Moscow and Beijing within
the frame of a common Eurasian vision. The geopolitical integration
of Eurasia could be the better way to reduce the aftermath of the crisis
and, obviously, to contribute to consolidate the emerging multipolar
system.
Among the new emerging players, obviously, also Brazil, Argentina and
Venezuela must be included. As known, during the last few years these
countries, located in the southern American subcontinent, the one time
US “backyard”, have strengthen strategic relationship
with the main Eurasian countries, China, Russia and some middle east
countries (among them, Iran) in order to participate actively to the
geopolitical global shift from unipolar to multipolar system. In such
a new context of important relations among countries owners of energetic
resources and worldwide important raw materials, Brazil, Venezuela and,
under some aspects, Argentina, should resist to the consequences originating
from the “global” crisis.
EUROPE
Regarding the building economic security and social stability in Europe
we reckon that the European governments must, first of all, reconsider
their geopolitical postures, which means to acquire the total sovereignty
in all the fields: political, economical, military, cultural. In general,
the Europeans should reflect that their own interests are “Eurasian
interests”, no US or “Western” interests.
For Europeans (not for the nowadays ruling oligarchies) there is no
economic freedom without continental sovereignty.
Concerning some practical aspects, we point out only two main aspects
on which the European governments should focus their attention:
a) reformulation of the banking system and
b) building of a new mixed economy.
The banking system, as all of us know, is, nowadays, a “private”
institution, focused to make profit. It doesn’t take into account
the social frame where it acts and the consequences that it could provoke.
The banking system is “not responsible”: that cannot
be longer tolerated. In order to rebuild the social and the economic
stability, in fact, the banking system should become a “social”
institution, having the aim of providing a service to the whole society.
The creation of a European “integrated new mixed economy”
is something very important and deeply connected with the European banking
system’s reformulation.
This is possible starting by the public financing of strategic infrastructures
related to energy and communications at continental scale, in the context
of a cooperation with Russia and North Africa and Near East Countries.
Other main axis to be regarded are:
-the development of the European integrated military industry;
-the development of the European integrated research devoted to high
technologies;
-the implementation of useful tools for the increasing of the social
justice and solidarity at continental scale with respect to the local
traditions;
-the creation of a collective security organisation at continental scale
(Europe – Russia) and at Mediterranean scale (Europe – North
Africa);
-the strengthening of cultural relations within the Ancient Continent
(Europe – Asia – Africa) on the basis of the “Eurasian
spiritual unity”.
CONCLUSIONS
The geopolitical perspective, for which the so-called global crisis
is mainly an inner crisis of the Western System, has led us to consider
as unnatural the posture of Europe within the US geopolitical area.
Hence, the solution of the crisis has to be found out of the “liberalist”
practices, imposed by the US as winner of the second world war and “adopted”
by Europeans in the last 60 years, in contradiction with their solidarity-based
attitudes.
The reposition of Europe within the Eurasian context is considered as
the prerequisite in order to build social security and economic stability,
following the principle: there is no social and economic development
without sovereignty.
The main European frameworks which need to be considered and reformulated
are the banking system and the economic system. The shifting of the
banking system from private to public service is stressed. The reorienting
of the liberalist economic system to a European new mixed economy is
proposed.
