by Turan Kislakci
The Russian invasion of Ukraine clearly reveals that the world is witnessing a Cold War. The rivalry between the US and China is also following the pattern of a Cold War. In turn, international organisations such as the UN are going through a major crisis and are disintegrating, while the world order, which was already suffering from a severe crisis for many years, has today moved to a new stage with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
In a speech last week, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that the Ukraine crisis is getting worse, adding that there is no doubt that mutual mistakes were made and that efforts to search for a new balance of power, and calculations of short-term interests will cause great strategic losses and human tragedy in the medium and long term.
"We are entering a new era, a new Cold War, the effects of this war will last for decades," he said. Kalin stressed that Turkey "will maintain its balanced position," and said, "new balances will be formed in all areas, including food security, energy, geopolitical dynamics, and regional alliances." He added: "Turkey, at this critical stage, will maintain its balanced position in order to establish peace, stability, security, and justice, and will continue its multifaceted initiatives."
Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, has become a serious threat to the Western alliance. The disappearance of the issue of the use of nuclear weapons at the beginning of the war in Ukraine from the global agenda is a good development, but no one has ignored US President Joe Biden's insistence to intensify his criticism of Russia and Putin, as after describing his Russian counterpart as a "war criminal" he began using the phrase "genocide" when speaking about Russia's practices in Ukraine. On the other hand, since it is not possible for the American strategic mind to abandon its goal of limiting the main competition, China, and it appears that the competition between the global super powers is gradually taking the form of a "new cold war with two fronts". In their joint article published in Foreign Policy magazine, which specialises in international politics, political experts Mathew Burrows and Robert A. Manning stated: "Fighting a two-front new cold war would mean far higher military expenditures, great uncertainty weighing down the global economy, and a diversion from the Biden administration's foundational goal of rebuilding the United States." They warned the Biden administration against making the mistake of igniting a double Cold War in which it faces Russia and China at the same time. In the midst of all this, does the Arab and Islamic world have the preparations needed to face the newly started phase? How will this phase afflict Muslim countries that are drowning in delayed debates about secularism, military coups, political turmoil and economic problems? It seems that our region will be subject to huge tsunamis, and our politicians are still trying to maintain their policies according to the logic of the last century.
Unfortunately, our region has very few leaders who will collectively embrace their people and propose a new way out of the new tsunami that will hit the entire world hard. The situation of our intellectuals is no better than that of our politicians. There is no doubt that the current era is experiencing a major change, which has led to the occurrence of unprecedented disturbances on a global scale and its goal is to accelerate the transformation of the human race into a new artificial entity that can be directed and instructed, making it flexible and able to expand. Even if societies are not completely wiped out, they will be largely torn apart from all sides.
It is clear that countries such as Turkey and Qatar are aware of the nature of this stage, and there is no doubt that Qatar and Turkey are the countries that are globally distinguished in leading efforts to eliminate the widespread negative effects of the pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war on the entire world. President Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim, are known to repeatedly highlight the injustices that exist in the current international order. Turkey has indeed prioritised diplomacy in order to reach a ceasefire and bring about peace as soon as possible before and during the war in Ukraine. It conducted extensive calls with the leaders and contributed to holding meetings between the two sides of the crisis in Antalya and Istanbul, because the global powers that disrupt diplomacy are dragging the world to the brink of a new disaster.
This content was published in Middle East Monitor on April 22, 2022. To restrict the overall size; some images may have been excluded.
Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of UMMnews.
