We are well enough informed today to know that international law is more often written with the ink of violence and cunning than with that of reason and wisdom. For years we have heard the sounds of boots and muscle flexing about Ukraine. A potential mega disaster is brewing…
I respectfully allow myself a point of clarification: it is not normal for one nation to dominate or directly or indirectly submit another. It is an aberration. Also, no nation should submit or allow itself to be dominated by another. It’s a truism.
Reality
Just like the force of gravity that acts on humans when they are on earth, there is very probably another reality to which the vast majority of humanity does not escape: barbarism.
Despite the sophisticated appearances of our civilization from the technical, intellectual, moral and political points of view, at bottom we are barbarians. Conscious barbarians… Each in their own way.
In particular, we arm ourselves with the most sophisticated rifles, cannons or missiles we manufacture to settle our differences. And it is from the angle of barbarism that, vaguely at heart, I watch the alarming news coming from Ukraine in recent times.
Ultimately, the fall of the Berlin Wall will not have served the cause of peace. Unfortunately, we remained in a cold war. We almost never got out of it.
dominate and submit
Born at the end of the Second World War, two of the three dominant military powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, divided the world into zones of influence like a cake. However, they remained very hostile towards each other.
They nevertheless cherished the idea of a lasting peace, the time of the fall of the physical wall of demarcation of their respective zones of influence in Europe and the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
They had nevertheless undertaken to each respect the territory of historical influence of the other. A bit like street gangs or bikers back home… Verbal promises of non-interference that have not been respected by the United States… The rest unfolds before our eyes in Ukraine today .
There is no doubt that both Russia and the US are fiercely attached to their dominant position. And if they want to dominate other countries, it’s most likely because they fear being dominated or subjugated themselves one day.
In the specific case of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, having Ukraine – or even all the countries of the former “communist bloc” – under its control makes it possible to projectively protect oneself from it.
For its part, while it has not even been invited to the negotiating table surrounding the crisis in Ukraine, Canada, which shares its northern border with Russia, has chosen its camp: force. Notwithstanding the fact that Russia is not entirely wrong in this crisis.
Canada should have observed relative neutrality in the eventual prospect of a mediating role. A great missed opportunity…