By Alan Collins Mpewo
War is a scourge that any right-thinking member of society should hate. Not good now, wasn’t then, will never be. But also, as time has gone by, there are those who always believe that war is good, and that from war, society rebuilds and prospers beyond the terrors that it has outlived. That way, society lives through a cycle of endless destruction and rebuild. Many will agree that a lot of devastation is unavoidable whenever physical armor lets loose, and ideally, we’ve witnessed that in days not so far gone. Ukraine, is both a test subject and witness as regards the war conversation. Many lives have been lost, and along the way, if all keeps going as is, more will be lost on both fronts to the war – Russia and Ukraine indiscriminately. Inter-country wars spare not many. The scuffle has raged for months now, and nothing much seems to be positive as regards possibilities of letting peace get restored to both sides of the war.
Along the divide are a few countries that have decided to remain neutral and rather not take any efforts in standing in support if any side. However, the two distant antagonistic sides have support and cheers coming to their aid. One side is pro war, and another pro peace. The supporters of the war undoubtedly have reasons, valid and unwarranted, just as the pro peace chanters. On a scale of each side’s concerns, some merit can be discerned. Ultimately for the pro war, doubt can be left in as to whether any would choose or wish their lands beam into endless showers of disaster by firearms. International politics is a subtle and dangerous subject that even when state of affairs seem obvious, there will always be a wing not so much concerned about the victim(s), but their interests. The West has had its take, and there’s no doubt whatsoever on the side of the line it stands. While in a wake to show support to Ukraine, there’s equally much that’s left desirable in as far as it also strongly looks at having its interests above the ordinary aspirations of those that it seeks to aid.
Many speeches have come from all centers of the world, each voice providing its assessment and possible measures going forward. To that has been China that has constantly called for peace. While war is another such measure through which peace can at the end of it all be achieved, on a probability of winning such war, it’s a measure that comes at a great (or rather greatest) price. It has gone ahead to provide more measures that can be adopted by both sides to the tie, to which (among others) is diplomatic talks. Such have achieved much success in the past, in many lands across the globe, and a lot has been spared the troubles of disaster. No wonder, there are constant arising platforms for diplomacy outcry, that have joined the already existent platforms. It goes to show how a great deal of importance it is, that the modern world regards peace. Disruptions have led to untold setbacks, that the present world still pays a price for. Rebuilding destroyed structures in all aspects of society take much longer and challenges that should have been mitigated, if other better options had initially been explored.
The United Nations has in the past established such platforms of diplomacy, but a lot has always been left to be desired. The scale on which the United Nations tilts in some matters has always left bias, and perhaps that’s why some members, especially the East and its allies have always called out the ‘Organization’ on such inadequacies. By and large, Russia still stands at a position of distaste for the West, and not so much can change regarding the present war. Be that as it may, some other countries have lived to see through the cunningness of the West especially on such global questions. Brazil for example, issued its stand regarding the US’s encouragement of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio recently couldn’t hold back on the dangerous support antics of the West to Ukraine. Just like China and many other countries, Brazil understands that peace can be achieved through diplomatic options other than continued encouragement of either side to the ongoing war.
He added that while It’s understandable that a superpower showdown to have one of the West’s greatest allies keep being weakened, it’s unfortunately not in the best interests of other world players. According to the pro peace league of nations, there’s much the rest of the global players can do in bringing the two conflicting countries to a round table to possibly iron their differences and forge a better way out that’s in the interest of both countries. While the US keeps on its ideology of having the entire world united against its major enemy, Russia, other players are in contrast of ideology and rather than keep supplying weapons and all forms of armor, peaceful methods should be revisited to further find lesser destructive ways of regaining the old or better peaceful suns and moons between Russia and Ukraine.
Today, despite heavy causalities especially on both sides with heavy destruction on Ukraine side, it is becoming clearer that the US is interested in seeing Russia-Ukraine crisis continue. If we critically analyze comments from most top politicians in Washington, one can argue that sadly, Ukraine is a victim of great power politics and is being used by Washington as a proxy state to fight a war that in all ways would have been avoided! As rightly observed by Congressman Adam Schiff; “the United States aides Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia over here.” In light of the above, one can contend that if the U.S doesn’t want Russia to fight Ukraine, then the U.S should not use Ukraine to fight Russia as Adam Schiff told.
All in all, as China proposed in her Global Security Initiative (GSI), for peace to prevail globally, we must avoid unilateralism, block formation, power politics and confrontation and that taking into consideration each other’s legitimate security concerns are key when it comes to sustainable global security.
Alan Collins Mpewo is a senior research fellow, Development Watch Centre.