The Western Edifice created soon after the second world war and ruling the world since then has started developing serious cracks that seem to be irreparable. The United Nations and NATO are the backbone of this Edifice and both these institutions are facing serious challenges. Tony Blair rightly said recently that India never was as powerful as it is today and America and the West have no alternative but to keep India on their side. He also said that it did not matter that India was not a permanent member of the UN Security Council thereby implying that the structure of the UN had become irrelevant. What Blair said is simply the writing on the wall. The UN Security Council is simply meaningless if India is not there. How can you keep a country like India out of this body which represents twenty percent of the world population with a healthy democracy and with a tag of fifth largest economy and nuclear power?
The Russia Ukraine conflict has made these fissures apparent. Hungary has openly sided with Russia, irritating America to the extent that it had to openly warn her to keep away from Russia. Similarly, protests have erupted in Australia against NATO. Several NATO members are feeling that they have been taken for a ride by America which has involved them in this conflict for personal gain. It is a fact that a majority of European nations have been deweaponised while maintaining the supply line of weapons, arms and ammunitions to Ukraine which has enabled it to hold Russia this far. Now they will have to buy these weapons, arms and ammunitions from America for their own security. Leaving the protection of Europe in the hands of America in the name of NATO has cost them dearly and of late, Europe has realised it. That's why there is a growing demand all over Europe to develop their own mechanism of defence.
Besides, they are facing an unprecedented energy crisis because the supply line from Russia has been disrupted and a very high rate of inflation has made the life of the people miserable. They had to buy natural gas at a much inflated rate from America. This hurt them not only financially but psychologically also as they could not believe that America would make money out of their difficulty which was of American making in the first place.
The creation and maintenance of such an Edifice was useful so long there was a serious threat from the USSR. But maintaining such an Edifice and further expanding NATO was beyond any political and military logic after the disintegration of the USSR. The American policy of weakening and isolating Russia pushed her to the wall leaving no option but to retaliate. Ukraine is simply a pawn in this sinister game and has been devastated beyond redemption in near future. A political commentator jokingly said that the US will support Ukraine till the end.
Jokes apart, it appears that the US is trying to put forward alibis to get out of this war as is indicated by some recent articles published in The Washington Post and New York Times where Ukraine has been charged with wrongly informing the US that Russia had engineered the sabotage of Nord Stream Gas Pipeline.
The third important pillar and the monetary lifeline of this Edifice is the US dollar which had been under attack for quite some time. However, it has come under savage hammering after US sanctions against Russia. Several countries started trade with Russia and other countries in their own currencies. Though it started as a temporary mechanism to do business circumventing the US sanctions, it has gained momentum and has started replacing dollar in energy purchases. The petro-dollar was the strongest domain of this monetary lifeline and its weakening has dented this Edifice. The Indian Rupee is likely to get the approval of fifty nations as a standard currency of transaction shortly which will make it an international currency. The UPI payment system has become very popular and several countries are eager to adopt it. Similarly Yuan is trying to cut into the domination of the dollar as an international currency.
Therefore, the survival of the Edifice of the US led West is under serious threat.
The writer is a noted academician and political commentator. Views Expressed are personal.
