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UKRAINE: THE WAR TO SAVE THE U.N. CHARTER AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

To see a list of previous articles, enter “Ukraine” in the Search Box on the upper right, on The Trenchant Observer web site, and you will see a list in chronological order.

Dispatches

1) Stefan Aust und Adrian Geiges, “BRICS Gipfel: Ein antiwestlicher Block entsteht, so mächtig wie noch nie,” Die Welt, den 26. Juni 2022:

2) Stefan Aust and Adrian Geiges, “BRICS Summit: An anti-Western block is created, more powerful than ever before,” Die Welt, June 27, 2022 (English translation from Die Welt website);

3) Sherelle Jacobs, “The G7 summit has confirmed my worst fears about the chronic decline of the West; Liberal democracy is crumbling. And our leaders don’t seem to care,” The Telegraph, June 27, 2022 (9:30 pm);

4) Martin van Creveld, “Es reicht nicht. Fünf Gründe, warum Russland gewinnt,” DiecWelt, den 28. Juni 2022 (08:17 Uhr);

5) Richard Kemp, “Whilst the G7 dithers, Putin is rebuilding his strategic power; China, Egypt, India, and Saudi Arabia are all strengthening their relationships with the Kremlin, despite the West’s warnings,” The Telegraph, The Telegraph, June 22, 2022 (2:13pm);

Analysis

Richard Kemp comments on the G-7 summuit in Elmau Germanybas follows:

“The main message on Ukraine was self-congratulation on their unity and how they must not be divided. There were no new initiatives to decisively step up supply of battle-winning weapons, on which Nato in fact remains divided, with Italy resolute against confronting Russia, Germany talking big but dragging its feet and France looking to save Putin’s face. There was concern about hunger caused by Moscow’s grain blockade but no solid proposals on how to break it.

Drawing similar conclusions, Sherelle Jacobs provides an incisive analysis that makes many of us feel deeply uneasy about the course and prospects of the war to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Things are not going well, and they promise to go even worse.

Jacobs begins her analysis as follows:

In happier times, G7 summits could be indulged and ignored. The latest carries the chill of historic failure. The gathering in the Bavarian Alps confirms our worst fears about Western decline. The free world’s commitment to liberty has faltered. It now seems all but official that the West lacks the unity and will to prevent Russia’s annexation of Ukraine. Nor does it have any coherent response to the rise of China.

The West has become weak, Jacobs argues, because it has lost its faith in the twin pillars of neoliberalism, the cause of freedom and the value of free trade. She rites,

But here is the killer question: why are Western technocrats failing to make the case for the liberal world order? Is it a cosmic leadership failure – a reflection of the fully automated cretinism that passes for technocratic managerialism today? Partially, but we also need to factor in the precipitous decline of neoliberalism over the past decade.

Jacobs declares,

The West has lost all its confidence in the sacred power of freedom. And as the West loses its faith, so will the rest of the world.

This statement rings true. Nowhere do we hear the full-throated defense of freedom and the defense of international law that might guarantee it.

Narrow commercial interests reassert themselves against the rhetoric of defending freedom and democracy, as political leaders begin to calculate how much a long war of attrition against Russia will cost if they have to support Kyiv with both weapons and financial assistance to keep the government afloat.

Outside of the East European countries one strains to hear the clarion call of political leaders determined to prevail in a civilizational struggle with Russia, with the militarism and barbarism of Putin and Russia’s leadership class.

Reflecting on Jacob’s analysis, one cannot escape the thought that today’s leaders, facing the immense challenge of Russia’s aggression and assault on the U.N. Charter and international law, are as inadequate to the task before them as were the leaders of Britain and France who faced the Nazi challenge in the 1930’s.

The Trenchant Observer

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See also,

Only force can stop Putin

“Ukraine War, April 5, 2022 (II): Force must be used to stop Putin,” The Trenchant Observer, April 5, 2922 .

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