Is the Multipolar World Dead?

2 comments

1. This piece, coming from a writer who’s very pro-multipolar/pro-BRICS and critical of the US and Israel, takes a closer look at why Russia and China chose to abstain in the recent UN Security Council vote on Trump’s Gaza plan.

   The article argues that the decision makes a lot more sense when you look at how deeply both countries are tied to Israel today. China is Israel’s biggest import partner and heavily involved in infrastructure, ports, and tech projects, while Russia enjoys steady trade, avoids Israeli sanctions over Ukraine, and coordinates with Israel in Syria.

   From this angle, the abstentions aren’t surprising,they reflect how much Russia and China value their relationships with Israel.

2. This argument is very bizarre. Was there really a wide expectation that a multipolar would be more humanitarian focused than unipolar world under a relatively benign superpower? Maybe if the rising power in question had a better human rights record we could expect that, but China is no such power. While America’s promotion of human rights generally faltered when faced by countervailing self interests, China escapes accusations of hypocrisy by avoiding the subject. Remember, their pitch to the developing world is that they give loans without human rights and democracy lectures.

   Even worse, the onset of multipolarity has only served to diminish human rights concerns. Within America competition with China is often used as justification for a return to more time honored methods of maintaining hegemony. Of course, if you’re already referring to America as an empire, you’ve left yourself no words to describe the behavior of Trump’s America, let alone Russia and China.

   This poor use of language has likely lead to the misunderstanding of multipolarity voiced in the article. A multipolar world isn’t anti imperial. It’s a world in which smaller empires have more latitude to expand. The stakes are now higher and this diminishes concern for distant people with no power. Why should Europe care about Gaza when their own borders are threatened? Why should China care when they have a chance to expand their hegemony past the first island chain? Do you expect Russians to care about them when their busy slaughtering Ukrainians and pioneering neo colonialism in Africa?

   Far from collapsing, multipolarity is just getting started, and it’s going to be a rough ride.

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