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<title>This Is Not the Age of Certainty. We Are in the Time of
Contradictions: The Fourteenth Newsletter (2022)</title>
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style="color:#ba2025"><span
style="font-family:lato,helvetica neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">This
Is Not the Age of
Certainty. We Are in the
Time of Contradictions:
The Fourteenth
Newsletter (2022)</span></span></span></strong>
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valign="top"> <br>
<span
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neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">
<div id="attachment_58179"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-58179"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-58179
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Henry-Moore-Britain-Grey-Tube-Shelter-1940..jpg"
alt="Henry Moore
(Britain), Grey Tube
Shelter, 1940."
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Henry-Moore-Britain-Grey-Tube-Shelter-1940..jpg
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style="max-width:
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<p
id="caption-attachment-58179"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
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exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
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style="color: #ba2025;"><a
style="color:
#ba2025;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
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href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d5fc50f580&e=d206d0a40d"
moz-do-not-send="true">Henry
Moore</a> (Britain), <i>Grey
Tube Shelter</i>,
1940.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=659c9ee375&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">It
is hard to fathom the depths
of our time, the terrible
wars, and the confounding
information that whizzes by
without much wisdom.
Certainties that flood the
airwaves and the internet
are easy to come by, but are
they derived from an honest
assessment of the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=0d26494a79&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">war</a>
in Ukraine and the sanctions
against Russian banks (part
of a broader United States
sanctions policy that now <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=aeb9ac85e8&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">afflicts</a>
approximately thirty
countries)? Do they
acknowledge the horrific
reality of <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=89d8d350b2&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">hunger</a>
that has increased due to
this war and the sanctions?
It appears that much of the
‘certainties’ are caught up
in the ‘Cold War mentality’,
which views humanity as
irreversibly divided on two
opposing sides. However,
this is not the case; most
countries are struggling to
craft a non-aligned approach
to the US-imposed ‘new Cold
War’. Russia’s conflict with
Ukraine is a symptom of
broader geopolitical battles
that have been waged over
decades.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">On
26 March, US President Joe
Biden defined some
certainties from his
perspective at the Royal
Castle in Warsaw (Poland), <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d3e8f1abaa&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">calling</a>
the war in Ukraine ‘a battle
between democracy and
autocracy, between liberty
and repression, between a
rules-based order and one
governed by brute force’.
These binaries are wholly a
fantasy of the White House,
whose attitude towards
‘rules-based order’ is not
rooted in the UN Charter but
in ‘rules’ that the US
pronounces. Biden’s
antinomies culminated in one
policy objective: ‘For God’s
sake, this man cannot remain
in power’, he said, meaning
Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin. The narrowness of
Biden’s approach to the
conflict in Ukraine has led
to a public call for regime
change in Russia, a country
of 146 million people whose
government <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=9b6188d762&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">possesses</a>
6,255 nuclear warheads. With
the US’s violent history of
controlling leadership in
several countries, reckless
statements about regime
change cannot go unanswered.
They must be universally
contested.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
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https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Juss-Piho-Estonia-Journey-2009.-768x583.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-58189"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;"><a
style="color:
#ba2025;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=8cc292c7d6&e=d206d0a40d"
moz-do-not-send="true">Juss
Piho</a> (Estonia), <i>Journey</i>,
2009.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
principal axis of Russia’s
war is not actually Ukraine,
though it bears the brunt of
it today. It is whether
Europe can be permitted to
forge projects independently
of the US and its North
Atlantic agenda. Between the
fall of the USSR (1991) and
the world financial crisis
(2007–08), Russia, the new
post-Soviet republics
(including Ukraine), and
other Eastern European
states sought to integrate
into the European system,
including the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Russia <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=64fe9435d5&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">joined</a>
NATO’s Partnership for Peace
process in 1994, and seven
Eastern European countries
(including Estonia and
Latvia that border Russia) <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=bfff04a59a&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">joined</a>
NATO in 2004. During the
global financial crisis, it
became evident that
integration into the
European project would not
be fully possible because of
vulnerabilities in Europe.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">At
the Munich Security
Conference in February 2007,
President Vladimir Putin <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d1c49452b6&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">challenged</a>
the US’s attempt to create a
unipolar world. ‘What is a
unipolar world?’, Putin
asked. ‘No matter how we
beautify this term, it means
one single centre of power,
one single centre of force,
and one single master’.
Referring to US withdrawal
from the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty in 2002
(which he had <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=6c0a16a1e9&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">criticised</a>
at that time) and the US’s
illegal Iraq War in 2003,
Putin said, ‘Nobody feels
secure anymore because
nobody can hide behind
international law’. Later,
at the 2008 NATO Summit in
Bucharest (Romania), Putin <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=cc9eb49481&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">warned</a>
about the dangers of NATO’s
eastward expansion, lobbying
against the entry of Georgia
and Ukraine into the
military alliance. The next
year, Russia partnered with
Brazil, China, India, and
South Africa to <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=c7dcd1b0c9&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">form</a>
the BRICS bloc as an
alternative to
Western-driven
globalisation.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_58199"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-58199"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-58199
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Yang-Fudong-China-Seven-Intellectuals-in-Bamboo-Forest-2006..jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Yang-Fudong-China-Seven-Intellectuals-in-Bamboo-Forest-2006..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Yang-Fudong-China-Seven-Intellectuals-in-Bamboo-Forest-2006.-300x213.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Yang-Fudong-China-Seven-Intellectuals-in-Bamboo-Forest-2006.-768x544.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-58199"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Yang
Fudong (China), <i>Seven
Intellectuals in
Bamboo Forest</i>,<i>
Part IV</i>, 2006.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">For
generations, Europe has
relied on imports of natural
gas and crude oil first from
the USSR and then from
Russia. This dependence on
Russia has increased as
European countries have
sought to end their use of
coal and nuclear energy. At
the same time, <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=fd37d907c8&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Poland</a>
(2015) and <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=b9e92abdf6&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Italy</a>
(2019) signed onto the
Chinese-led Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI). Between
2012 and 2019, the Chinese
government also formed the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f07215b53c&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">17+1
Initiative</a>, linking
seventeen central and
Eastern European countries
in the BRI project. The
integration of Europe into
Eurasia opened the door for
its foreign policy
independence. But this was
not permitted. The entire
‘global NATO’ feint – <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a944c8d3ab&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">articulated</a>
in 2008 by NATO secretary
general Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer – was part of
preventing this development.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Fearful
of the great changes
occurring in Eurasia, the US
acted on commercial and
diplomatic/military fronts.
Commercially, the US tried
to substitute European
reliance on Russian natural
gas by <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=0a037bd47f&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">promising</a>
to supply Europe with
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
from both US suppliers and
Gulf Arab states. Since LNG
is far more expensive than
piped gas, this was not an
enticing commercial deal.
Challenges to Chinese
advancements in high-tech
solutions – particularly in
telecommunications,
robotics, and green energy –
could not be sustained by
Silicon Valley firms, so the
US <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=2b6376950d&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">escalated</a>
two other instruments of
force: first, the use of War
on Terror rhetoric to ban
Chinese firms (claiming
security and privacy
considerations) and second,
diplomatic and military
manoeuvres to challenge
Russia’s sense of stability.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_58209"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-58209"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-58209
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Sadamasa-Motonaga-Japan-Red-and-Yellow-1963..jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Sadamasa-Motonaga-Japan-Red-and-Yellow-1963..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Sadamasa-Motonaga-Japan-Red-and-Yellow-1963.-300x224.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Sadamasa-Motonaga-Japan-Red-and-Yellow-1963.-768x574.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-58209"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Sadamasa
Motonaga (Japan), <i>Red
and Yellow</i>, 1963.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
US’s strategy was not
entirely successful.
European countries could see
that there was no effective
substitute for both Russian
energy and Chinese
investment. Banning Huawei’s
telecommunications tools and
preventing NordStream 2 from
certification would only
hurt the European people.
This was clear. But what was
not so clear was that the US
concurrently began to
dismantle the architecture
that held in place
confidence that no country
would begin a nuclear war.
In 2002, the US unilaterally
abandoned the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty and, in
2018–19, they <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=9ba20d99cf&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">left</a>
the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
European countries played a
key role in establishing the
INF Treaty in 1987 through
the ‘nuclear freeze’
movement, but the
abandonment of the treaty in
2018–19 was met with
relative silence from
Europeans. In 2018, US
National Security Strategy
shifted from its focus on
the Global War on Terror to
the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=db86942720&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">prevention</a>
of the ‘re-emergence of
long-term, strategic
competition’ from ‘<a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=096dae8cfa&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">near-peer
rivals</a>’ such as China
and Russia. At the same
time, European countries
began to carry out ‘freedom
of navigation’ exercises
through NATO in the Baltic
Sea, the Arctic Sea, and
South China Sea, sending
threatening messages to
China and Russia. These
moves effectively brought
China and Russia very close
together.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Russia
indicated on several
occasions that it was aware
of these tactics and would
defend its borders and its
region with force. When the
US intervened in Syria in
2012 and Ukraine in 2014,
these moves threatened
Russia with the loss of its
two main warm water ports
(in Latakia, Syria and
Sebastopol, Crimea), which
is why Russia annexed Crimea
in 2014 and intervened
militarily in Syria in 2015.
These actions suggested that
Russia would continue to use
its military to protect what
it sees as its national
interests. Ukraine then shut
down the North Crimean canal
that brought the peninsula
85% of its water, forcing
Russia to supply the region
with water over the Kerch
Strait Bridge, built at
enormous cost between 2016
and 2019. Russia did not
need ‘security guarantees’
from Ukraine, or even from
NATO, but it sought them
from the United States.
There was fear in Moscow
that the US would place
intermediate range nuclear
missiles around Russia.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_58219"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-58219"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-58219
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Evgeny-Trotsky-Russia-Rest-2016..jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Evgeny-Trotsky-Russia-Rest-2016..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Evgeny-Trotsky-Russia-Rest-2016.-300x195.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Evgeny-Trotsky-Russia-Rest-2016.-768x498.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-58219"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Evgeny
Trotsky (Russia), <i>Rest</i>,
2016.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
light of this recent
history, contradictions
rattle the responses of
Germany, Japan, and India,
amongst others. Each of
these countries needs
Russian natural gas and
crude oil. Both Germany and
Japan have sanctioned
Russian banks, but neither
German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz nor Japanese Prime
Minister Fumio Kishida can <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=80483ba9a8&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">cut</a>
energy imports. India,
despite being part of the
US-backed Quad along with
Japan, has refused to join
the condemnation of Russia
and the sanctions on its
banking sector. These
countries have to manage the
contradictions of our time
and weigh up the
uncertainties. No state
should accept the so-called
‘certainties’ that reinforce
Cold War dynamics, nor
should they neglect the
dangerous outcomes of
externally influenced regime
change and chaos.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><img
loading="lazy"
class="aligncenter
wp-image-58229 size-full
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220406_Toge-Sankichi.jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220406_Toge-Sankichi.jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220406_Toge-Sankichi-300x300.jpg
300w,
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style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0"></p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">It
is always a good idea to
reflect on the quiet charm
of the poems of Tōge
Sankichi, who watched the
atomic bomb fall on his
native Hiroshima in 1945,
and then later joined the
Japanese Communist Party to
fight for peace. In his
‘Call to Action’, Sankichi <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=110f172126&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">wrote</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left:
80px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">stretch
out those grotesque arms<br>
to the many similar arms<br>
and, if it seems like that
flash might fall again,<br>
hold up the accursed sun:<br>
even now it is not too late.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
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100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
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16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
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100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
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100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
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16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
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