All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
***
Recently, Sir Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, gave a speech at the transatlantic banking-funded “Ditchley Foundation”. In this speech, he focused on how a Western strategy should deal with Russia and China in light of the Ukraine conflict.
However, his criticisms and prescriptions are muddied not only by the fact that his conscience should be stained with the worst human rights atrocities of the twenty-first century but also by the fact that his transatlantic elitist outlook is detached from the democratic pulse.
Blair’s actions previously led the world to ruin. He sent Britain’s soldiers to their deaths in the illegal invasion of Iraq which led to the fatality of even more Iraqis. Tragically, as this disaster still plays out, Blair nevertheless finds it conscionable to offer another dose of his “statesmanship”.
Since leaving office, for Blair’s services to “hyper-imperialism” he has been showered with millions. Cocooned by “advisory” jobs with multinational banks and raking in “speaking fees” of over £300,000 per speech it’s easy to see why his worldview is so removed from the masses., Indeed, polls showed only a paltry 14 percent of the British public support his knighthood.
These days at times Blair looks fraught. Perhaps it is the face of a man consumed with repressed guilt. Though, considering the content of Blair’s speech, if there is any guilt, it hasn’t surfaced. Blair’s “clanger” of calling Russia a “member of the UN security council” out over the conflict in Ukraine a “democratic European state” was a prime example of this.
Aside from the bigoted overtones, where he contrasted a European war with ones that occur far away, in presumably more barbaric lands, there was no contemplation on the destruction of Ukraine’s democracy by the US since 2014. There was no mention that NATO was actively sponsoring neo-Nazis, and there was no reflection on Iraq where the very UN members that carried out this atrocity were through NATO edging their way towards Moscow.
Blair then moved to the recommendation of propping up a transatlantic strategy, with the US at the head, against China which he believes threatens Western systems and is competing against the West aggressively. First, why should any proud European submit to the US? Second, it’s not China sending a flotilla of warships through the English Channel. Where then is this China threat?
For Western transatlantic elites, China’s threat is through structures like the Belt and Road Initiative which will develop the world and so decrease the effectiveness of Western military hegemony. For Western citizens, without real democracy, their living standards will continue to decrease. In the short term, Western capitalism competing with rising powers like China may resort to war as a source of distraction, profits, plunder, and geopolitical domination. However, this will spark more trouble at home especially as competing ideologies from rising civilizations show that win-win cooperation through infrastructure development offers a better future for mankind.
Blair wants a united Western front against China to protect democracies. However, this has nothing to do with protecting democracy. The aforementioned united strategy against the Middle East, which Blair advocated in his speech for maintaining control of – “not for the oil” he said – was distinctly undemocratic then as it is now. Likewise, the strategy against China will continue to be in the service of a small transatlantic ruling elite who Blair serves.
In service of this united front, Blair advocates for more military spending where the US maintains its technological military supremacy. Thus, evidently, aside from working for the “banksters”, Blair also has a “side-hustle” shilling for foreign weapons manufacturers who profit from past, present, and future wars.
Despite advocating for an aggressive stance against China, Blair, mentioning a bi-polar world order, did at least say that “China’s place as a superpower is natural and justified.” However, despite this concession, we must consider two things. First, the bi-polar nature of Blair which was evident throughout his barefaced speech. What does the rise of the rest of the world and China mean for Blair when he continues down the line of asserting Western superiority through the barrel of a gun?
Second, China doesn’t want to be a unipolar or bipolar superpower in the conventional Western sense. Indeed, China doesn’t regard this as bringing about the optimum world order which is why China seeks a future of multipolarity where other regions rise too.
Stuck in the elitist Western echo chamber, this basic conceptual difference is lost on Blair. For example, over the last decade, China has been heavily engaged in building infrastructure in the Global South. It is this quest for global development that also leads to multipolarity. In contrast, besides invasion, the West has maintained exploitative unequal economic relations. Despite this, Blair believes the Global South “admire the Western system more than we realize.”
Being a European I am proud to say there are many good things about Western culture, its people, and institutions. For example, through workers’ movements, the West has been at the vanguard of developing welfare systems and its early development led to many inventions.
However, Blair is not representative of “us” he cashed out to “them” long ago. Furthermore, he has used Western technological superiority for immense harm. As such, when he calls for a “Western strategy” he does so not in the name of “us” the Western democratic whole but for “them” a small transatlantic elite.
*
Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
Keith Lamb is a graduate from the University of Glasgow, Staffordshire University and the University of Oxford. His primary research interests are the international relations of China, neoliberalism and China’s “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
