🌎 There is a very deep intellectual tradition of viewing the West as a deteriorating and doomed community.

It’s enough to recall Nietzsche's "God Is Dead", Spengler's "Decline of the West", and the discussion about the "Decay of the West" in Russian political philosophy to observe powerful arguments in favour of the death of the capitalist West, both in Marxism and in the modern concepts of neo-Marxists about the "future demise of the capitalist world system".

The conceptual scheme of the waning of the West fits well with the media coverage. The collapse of the Western coalition in Afghanistan, protests and even riots in the United States and Europe, political intrigues between the closest allies, and the erosion of the cultural code against the background of migration flows, and much, much more.

It would seem that there is nothing to doubt. The proud and selfish giant is about to fall to pieces. And in place of the world order he created, a still incomprehensible, but completely different world will arise.

The transition will be painful and turbulent. But the old world with a dominant West will no longer be possible. It could indeed be so. However, this option should still be considered only as one among a number of possible scenarios, writes Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

🔗 Decline of the West? Pros and Cons

#West #worldorder

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

💬🌐 Joe Biden's widely announced Summit for Democracy is scheduled for the end of the year. It is not difficult to assume that China and Russia will become the main targets for criticism there.

Therefore, an attempt to carry out counterplay in this field looks quite natural. It also reveals the broader context of the creation and consolidation of a kind of united front of China and Russia in the face of growing pressure from the United States. This united front can be called anti-Western or, if you will, anti-imperialist, although the terms are debatable.

If such a united front is taken as a given of modern world politics, then it is logical that China and Russia should form their own coordinated value and ideological narrative, including the issues of democracy (why not), in spite of the implicit paradox of this approach. In addition, the recent failure of the United States to promote democracy in Afghanistan provides additional evidence for this.

The plus for Russia and China is that they do not ask the presidents of other countries questions about how their elections were held, how they observe freedom of speech and how they treat their domestic political opponents. This means non-interference in internal affairs: a principle that has not yet been erased from the UN Charter and international law.

❓ How do the values of democracy affect the sovereignty of states and what are the limits of sovereignty in the context of a global value policy?

❓ Can non-Western (and actively criticised by the West) countries conduct a discourse on democracy? 

👉 Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Club, writes about this.

🔗 Non-Western Democracy and Its Interpretation

#Morality_and_Law #democracy #West #China #Russia

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

⚖️🌎 We see the double-character of nearly all so-called Western values and ideologies.

They were born in the West, because the West dominated the world for five centuries. They are claimed by the West, but they are more often betrayed by it. There is a trap in classifying the values themselves as Western or Eastern too readily. 

By using democratic slogans to justify imperialist interventions, the West has done enormous damage to the ideas of democracy and human freedom and rights.

The basic justification of every policy of the West is the ideology of ecumenism the West is projecting, full of complacency and arrogance. However, it is a false ecumenism, as it corresponds only to the narrow interests of the Western ruling classes, not the interests of humanity, writes Valdai Club expert Dimitris Konstantakopoulos.

📌 This article was written as a follow-up to the author’s presentation at the expert discussion “The Global Ideological and Spiritual Landscape and Russia’s Place on the New Values Map of the World”.

#Norms_and_Values #ecumenism #West

@valdai_club

🔎⚔️🗞 Most analysts in the West have developed a special kind of moral blindness, which is rooted in the feeling of being chosen; the ideological, moral superiority of the Western model of development.

They believe that they are advancing at a high speed along the path of progress, that there is a right side of history, and that the movement along it justifies the means by which this progress is achieved. They value civilian deaths quite differently depending on which side they represent. This is a special type of hypocrisy — to divide people into those who are on the right side of history and who are on the wrong side of history.

At the initial stage of the current phase of the crisis in the West, analysts began to play the role of activists and rhetorically exclaim: “how is that?”, “no war”, and “we are for peace.” For them, there is only one participant in the conflict worthy of support — Ukraine, which is on the right side of history. Accordingly, its missile attacks on Donbass and Russian territory are righteous. There was not a single sympathetic statement in the West regarding the murder of pro-Russian citizens in Odessa on May 2, 2014.

The tacit acceptance of a consistent defeat of the rights of Russians in Ukraine is completely unacceptable for Russia, and Western experts will not find understanding in Moscow until they stop looking at the problem selectively, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov.

#ModernDiplomacy #Ukraine #West

@valdai_club

🌏⏳🌎 On whose side is time in the confrontation between Russia and the West?

The West also misjudged Russia’s ability to counter sanctions with economic measures.

🔹 Russia has maintained its financial stability, switched to payments for mineral fuels in national currencies, and is actively integrating its own payment system with other national systems.

🔹 Russia has managed to diversify its oil and gas supplies to the world market. The West froze part of Russia’s financial assets, Russia in response froze some Western assets on its territory. The systematic abstention of the West from Russian energy resources has so far only led to an explosive increase in prices for them, with an unclear prospect of replacing the departed pipeline supplies with liquefied natural gas.

The strategic miscalculation of the sanctions architects also lies in the fact that after the end of the military crisis, the West will receive a much more polycentric system, levelling the effect of the consolidated sanctions pressure.

The refusal of Russian energy supplies marked the end of the well-being growth of ordinary European citizens, which had been observed for the preceding thirty years. That is why the calls of European politicians to save electricity and fuel are absolutely unprecedented for the average European, who would rather blame his government for what is happening, and not “Putin’s inflation.” With the onset of winter, the situation will only worsen, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov.

#ModernDiplomacy #sanctions #West #worldorder

@valdai_club