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Last Updated: Oct 14, 2008 - 7:53:05 AM |
The era of "unipolarity" -- of the United States setting itself up as
the "mega-regulator" of world affairs -- has reached a well-deserved
end, Medvedev told other leaders with undisguised satisfaction. That
failure became indisputable in August, he continued, when the United
States was powerless to prevent Georgia from attacking Russian forces
and Russia from responding by invading its neighbor.
Dump America Inc. was the implicit geopolitical stock tip that Medvedev
gave his listeners at the World Policy Conference, a three-day
leadership brainstorming session staged here by Ifri, France's leading
think tank. Another invisible subtext ran like a television crawl line
across Medvedev's chest as he spoke: The Kremlin is back in the
business of recruiting needy client states.
Medvedev spoke here Wednesday, a day after his government indicated
that it would respond favorably to Iceland's request for a $5 billion
bailout of that country's cratering banking system -- much to the
consternation of Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and other
Baltic leaders. "Containment seems not to be an option in the time of
globalization's free capital flows," Ilves told me glumly.
The Russian president also laid out new details of an initiative to
have European leaders negotiate a new security treaty with Russia that
would marginalize NATO and the United States. He also talked up
proposed Russian-European Union agreements that would exclude America
altogether.
These are bleak, life-support days for the Bush administration, which
has seen its early audacity race into hubris and now train wreck. Its
democracy promotion efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are in
deep trouble, its free-market ideology is being blamed for contributing
to the world financial crisis, and the Democrats look poised to take
control of Washington. For Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, his patron and
prime minister, the iron is irresistibly hot.
But as I listened to the freewheeling discussions, I wondered if the
widespread obituaries being written for American power and all that it
stands for might not turn out to be premature. I did not hear the deep
questioning of the American model of capitalism that I expected at this
moment of financial terror, and Medvedev's blatant attempt to drive
wedges between Europe and the United States was effectively blunted by
French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
We will be glad to discuss European security with you, Sarkozy
responded directly to Medvedev, but we will be joined by "our friends
and allies, the Americans. . . . Such matters concern them, too."
Sarkozy also warned his guest that new security arrangements for Europe
would not recognize "spheres of influence" (a concept recently endorsed
by Medvedev) and would have to be based on democratic freedoms and
respect for human rights. "Balance-of-power politics cannot guarantee
stability for our continent," Sarkozy added.
Music to the ears of an American participant. But for me the high point
was listening to three democratically elected leaders from the
developing world advise their Western peers not to give up on
supporting democracy and market liberalization in their countries and
everywhere else.
"Free elections are the only way out of crises" that would spark
repression or chaos for dictatorial regimes, said Mongolian President
Nambaryn Enkhbayar. His view was strongly echoed by Kenyan Prime
Minister Raila Odinga.
"Trade and investment are vital to Africa's ability to work its way out
of today's economic mess," said Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
"You in the North should be truly Keynesian about this crisis. Put your
billions into investments in Southern Hemisphere countries to create
real assets and jobs -- not financial bubbles -- and you will get the
best returns possible."
And Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal -- while warning that Western
countries should not try to force-feed democracy to the kingdom --
acknowledged that a country that refused to try any "of the dishes that
democracy has to offer risks starving to death."
There was, to be sure, skepticism and anger in Evian over what Sarkozy
called the excesses of "financial capitalism," which routed huge pools
of savings away from the productive economy into the pursuit of
unrealistic returns before slamming into the ditch.
But there was a solid consensus also for global oversight and
regulation, not for a renunciation of the free market. Medvedev's Dump
America message did not make much progress. What the world seems to
await is better American leadership, not its elimination.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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