_ Harley Schlanger, vice president, Schiller Institute. Washington D.C. – Berlin, 18. October 2023.*
In order to build a consensus to reverse the domination of the United States and the United Kingdom over the institutions of the European Union and NATO that currently hold sway in Europe, it is necessary that we do not limit ourselves to purely academic mind games.
A sober assessment of the May 19-21, 2023 G7 Summit in Hiroshima, where no dissenting opinion was expressed on the prospect of “perpetual war” between NATO and Russia in Ukraine, leads us to conclude that we may be moving rapidly toward a nuclear-led World War III. The EU and NATO have been reduced to the role of vassals under the thumb of the Anglo-Americans. Charles de Gaulle had already warned of this in his arguments with European leaders in the mid-1960s.
The unelected leaders of the EU and NATO signed a joint declaration on cooperation between the EU and NATO on January 10 of this year, consolidating what they called a “strategic partnership” based on “shared values.” This partnership was hailed by its authors as a “commitment to promote and preserve peace, freedom and prosperity in the Euro-Atlantic area.”
One must not be deceived: This declaration has nothing to do with preserving “peace, freedom and prosperity.” It is an open declaration of war on Russia and China, obliging the people of Europe to finance and arm an undemocratic regime in Kiev – at the expense of the living standards of most of the population in Europe. It condemns “Russian aggression” without acknowledging that the special military operation launched by President Putin in February 2022 was the result of his eight-year effort to get the U.S., EU and NATO to recognize the legitimate security interests of both Russia and Ukraine. Instead, it invokes “full solidarity with Ukraine.”
Moreover, it supports the continuation of NATO’s eastward expansion in the form of a “global NATO,” i.e., a military alliance directed against China’s “growing aggressiveness” without explaining to what extent this thesis, which is completely made up out of thin air, is supposed to pose a threat to any people in Europe. This commitment to continue the war with the aim of “weakening Russia” in Ukraine – the goal propagated by U.S. Defense Secretary Austin at the first meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Ramstein on April 26, 2022 – was confirmed at the G7 summit in Hiroshima.
During his state visit to Berlin on March 30, 2023, the unelected monarch of the United Kingdom, King Charles III, declared that [in Ukraine] “the security of Europe [is] as much under threat as our democratic values.” One might counter the king that it is rather the escalation of the war in Ukraine that threatens Europe’s security and that the EU and NATO governments’ commitment to war has nothing to do with “democratic values.” Underlying it all are desperate attempts to maintain U.S. status as a global hegemon directing a unipolar order that suits the strategic interests of the United Kingdom, but not the vital interests of EU and NATO member states.
The unipolar world order – with the USA as the global hegemon – often referred to by US Secretary of State Blinken as a “rules-based order”, stands outside of international treaties. It is the latest variant of an imperial system that controls the relationships between client states on behalf of a global oligarchy of closely interconnected corporate cartels – particularly in the financial sector and in so-called military-industrial complexes. This system openly opposes the idea of the sovereign rights of peoples and instead calls for joining a system from which supranational cartels benefit (City of London, Wall Street). By 2022, any country that refused to submit to this “rules-based order” was subversively attacked, with colour revolutions, assassinations and wars as the main means of enforcing it. Examples: Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Gaddafi’s Libya.
Charles De Gaulle believed that the peoples of Europe should be organized as “Europe of Fatherlands” on the basis of security and economic cooperation between sovereign states. He warned against merging the peoples of Europe into a “supranational state.” A supranational Europe would become a “Europe under American command,” said de Gaulle. The example of today’s Germany shows the need to put NATO in its place in de Gaulle’s style in favor of defending national interests. With regard to relations with Russia (then the Soviet Union), he believed that “Russia’s place is in Europe.”
The obligation to supply weapons, provide logistical support and train Ukrainian soldiers makes Germany a belligerent in the war against Russia. The idea of German tanks rolling through Ukraine and aiming at Russia brings back terrible memories of World War II for Russians – and it should for us too.
The West’s sanctions against Russia have backfired on many European countries as the loss of cheap energy has accelerated the implementation of the Green Party’s plan to deindustrialize Europe’s biggest economic engine.
This also includes the US-controlled sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and the silence of the federal government. This goes so far that even the evidence presented by renowned journalist Seymour Hersh pointing to the US as the perpetrator of this attack is simply ignored. Seen in this way, today’s Germany is still an occupied country.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke in 2010 about a “common European house” that would include Russia’s integration into Europe. He explained that the collapse of the USSR in 1991 offered a unique opportunity to build the European security architecture on the foundations of indivisible and equal security and comprehensive collaboration without dividing lines. NATO and the EU apparently did not want this; instead, they have penetrated to Russia’s borders and are using Ukraine as a battering ram in a proxy war against Russia. This means the continuation of a strategy that puts the desire for regime change in Moscow, the destruction of Russia and the appropriation of its abundant treasures, in place of the intention to define a common goal of the peoples of Europe that would include Russia as a partner.
A new security architecture for Europe and Germany begins with the dissolution of NATO as the first step into a new era of multilateral agreements. Instead of accepting Tony Blair’s insistence on rejecting the principles of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the return to reason should begin with the Christian-Westphalian idea of recognizing each other’s legitimate security interests. At the heart of this is non-interference in the affairs of other sovereign states – in complete contrast to the Blairite doctrine of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P), which provides a justification for regime change, as in Iraq, Libya and the happened in Ukraine and how it is still happening in Syria today. R2P does not imply a commitment to cooperation for economic development based on the principle of “acting for the benefit of others”, but is nothing more than a justification for regime change. The R2P formula was fully adopted by the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama and implemented in the form of US and NATO support for regime change in Ukraine in February 2014.
This discussion about a new security architecture also points to a necessary transformation of economic policy, i.e. the move away from punitive sanctions and blatant confiscation of sovereign resources as in the cases of Afghanistan and Russia. The corporate cartels behind the unipolar world order depend on NATO to enforce unfair economic policies controlled by the International Monetary Fund and enforcing a new form of colonialism. Is it any wonder that the peoples of the South, who were plundered by European colonial powers for centuries, today refuse to join the sanctions regime against Russia?
The emergence of new trade and investment institutions such as BRICS, the Shanghai Development Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Eurasian Economic Forum is linked to the process of “de-dollarization”. This should not be seen as a policy directed against the people of the West, but as a policy to combat the use of the dollar as a tool of forced underdevelopment.
The use of national currencies in trade and investment is accelerating internationally as economies in the transatlantic region collapse under the burden of debt. Instead of rescuing bankrupt speculators with funds taken from the weakening productive sectors, there should be a restructuring of bankruptcies and new regulation of the banking system following the successful example of the US Glass-Steagall Act on the separate banking system. In addition, a government-controlled national credit policy should be pursued based on the model of the Hamilton credit policy of the USA and the Credit Union for Reconstruction in order to break out of the current credit crunch. The implementation of this policy in the Federal Republic of Germany brought about the “economic miracle” of the 1950s and 1960s. It would ensure that the peoples of Europe could increase the standard of living at home and at the same time contribute to the development of the peoples of the Global South. This type of development assistance is the most effective way to reduce the influx of migrants from countries victimized by the current rules-based order.
Finally, say a few words about the woke culture. I would like to point out that the degenerate culture that has plagued the peoples of the West has its roots in cultural pessimism and the green agenda. This sees billions of people as “useless eaters” who face a future characterized by increasing conflict and energy, food and water shortages. As the founder of the magazine Executive Intelligence Review, Lyndon LaRouche demonstrated many years ago in his groundbreaking study “There Are No Limits to Growth” (New Benjamin Franklin House Publishers, 1983) that the only limits to small-minded ideologues who use the “environmental movement” as a cover for a Malthusian depopulation program that in turn serves the interests of the globalist corporate cartels. The effects of this ideology are amplified around the clock by social media and Big Tech cartels that use virtual monopoly power to control the “narrative” and limit honest debate.
When the power of censorship against alternative views – as in the fraudulent argument that “the debate is over” on “climate change” – is left unchecked, it ultimately leads to a crippling pessimism in the so-called developed world. This has inevitably contributed to the demoralization and cynicism displayed by most European citizens. They recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong and undemocratic about the policies pursued by the EU and NATO, but they are too immobile and too fearful to defend themselves against the mentally dulling effect of the “hybrid warfare” used against them.
If we want to preserve society, then we must reject the ”United States of Europe”, the policies of the EU and NATO and must continue to focus on the common interests of humanity. You can be a patriot and still be a citizen of the world! We need that today!
*Presentation given at the “Conference of European Continentalism” on 18 October 2023 in the German Bundestag in Berlin.