Continuing our discussion, there is a tendency on the part of Russia, which has developed in the Putin era, to initiate, or actively participate in, the building of new blocs and international organizations of regional and non-universal nature, which apparently substitute for the functions of older organizations, where there used to be a leading role allotted to the United States, while these new ones are carefully pushing America out of the world’s business, using the pretext of having a limited regional scope.
At the same time, the new organizations have an enhanced role for Russia to play, and, although there is no special leadership position for her there, Russia is bound to dominate them by her sheer size and the power of her presence.
I am talking, among others, about the new cooperative organizations, formed by the twenty-first century Russia, to offset the influence of the United States and to project her own renewed power. Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the SCO, is a particularly noteworthy group to watch here. It is currently restrictive in its membership, but it has already awarded the observer status to a number of interested aspiring outsiders, and the future of SCO now increasingly looks more and more like a major conglomerate of anti-American energy, subtly but surely evolving under the joint Russian-Chinese control, with Russia clearly on top as an energy superpower and a much more formidable military power than China can ever hope to be.
Meanwhile, the future of the US-dominated NATO is rather bleak, as NATO is bogged down in a quagmire of self-destructive misadventures, and the Europeans have long been talking of a Europe-only military and security organization, which is bound to make NATO utterly obsolete. As for the good old United Nations, the Russians seem happy enough to keep it alive along with its traditionally “anti-American and anti-Israel” reputation, and with the United States chronically miffed at the way it functions, and votes.
To put this in a nutshell, the building of new international organizations and the retooling of the old ones is strongly reflective of the current multipolarity principle, coming to govern the international relations in the new post-Soviet world. It is much to Russia’s liking, and, in many cases, a product of her own making, direct or indirect.
At the same time, the new organizations have an enhanced role for Russia to play, and, although there is no special leadership position for her there, Russia is bound to dominate them by her sheer size and the power of her presence.
I am talking, among others, about the new cooperative organizations, formed by the twenty-first century Russia, to offset the influence of the United States and to project her own renewed power. Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the SCO, is a particularly noteworthy group to watch here. It is currently restrictive in its membership, but it has already awarded the observer status to a number of interested aspiring outsiders, and the future of SCO now increasingly looks more and more like a major conglomerate of anti-American energy, subtly but surely evolving under the joint Russian-Chinese control, with Russia clearly on top as an energy superpower and a much more formidable military power than China can ever hope to be.
Meanwhile, the future of the US-dominated NATO is rather bleak, as NATO is bogged down in a quagmire of self-destructive misadventures, and the Europeans have long been talking of a Europe-only military and security organization, which is bound to make NATO utterly obsolete. As for the good old United Nations, the Russians seem happy enough to keep it alive along with its traditionally “anti-American and anti-Israel” reputation, and with the United States chronically miffed at the way it functions, and votes.
To put this in a nutshell, the building of new international organizations and the retooling of the old ones is strongly reflective of the current multipolarity principle, coming to govern the international relations in the new post-Soviet world. It is much to Russia’s liking, and, in many cases, a product of her own making, direct or indirect.
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