A Letter From Thailand
Can COP 27 and the ASEAN, East Asia, APEC and G20 summits steer a course for global cooperation on war, climate, pollution, non-proliferation and de-dollarisation?
UPDATE: In this letter from Thailand and the golden shores of rainy Phuket, the Long Mekong Daily analyses US malevolence and whether world leaders can actually do something about its attempts to impose its foreign policy objectives on the global majority. To maintain its political, financial and military hegemony and address its deep domestic structural faults, the United States is attempting to lengthen and strengthen the Ukraine conflict and radically increase weapons sales as well as raising domestic interest rates to export inflation - a tax on the Global South and US allies UK, Japan, Germany and South Korea - to finance its teetering economy.
The US imposition of severe financial, technological and trade restrictions [sanctions] on resource rich members of the Global South (Russia, Iran, Libya, Venezuela, North Korea, China, Myanmar) is designed to manipulate and dominate global oil and food markets and supplies. Because the US is largely self-sufficient in food and energy it suffers little cost to its economy while China, Europe, ASEAN and the globes emerging economies bear the full cost. Moreover, US military power is expeditionary and all conflict is two oceans away from its shores.
Thus, the US not only weakens and destabilises other states, it also runs global media propaganda campaigns that blame the economic and political turmoil on the leaders of target states. The campaigns contain little truth, but just enough to make the entire lie palatable, and concentrate on allegations of human rights abuses, forced labour, trafficking, environmental concerns and other social, environmental and governance issues. For many citizens of these states the Hollywood images of US peace and stability, which obscures the reality of the US’ broken social and political environment and rampant economic inequality, seems to offer a believable alternative to the economic and political pressures at home. Concurrently, the US uses the attraction of its export markets to pursue political socialisation programs in emerging economies. These socialisation programs concentrate on offering US narratives of democracy, liberty and equality as well as cultural, sexual and technological freedom and implicitly promise expensive education, access to vast riches and vigilante military and police solutions.
One need not look very far to witness the vigilantism of the United States. The sanctions, restrictions and interventions are not approved by the billions of citizens in the targeted countries. US domestic politicians are passing laws that are imperially imposed on foreign states. Extra-regional and long-arm legislation is not ‘legal’ and not condoned by the global community within the United Nations or any international court. In fact, the United States is not a member or signatory to many of the global agencies and or agreements that cover international law and international relations.
By financing and extending the Ukraine conflict and imposing ever harsher restrictions on China’s technological and economic development, the US is attempting to weaken the global economy and create sufficient time for it to reindustrialise, gain technological advantage, regain declining dollar supremacy and rebuild its aging military infrastructure. The US imposition of domestic laws to foreign states not only breaks WTO rules and many UN security council resolutions, but demonstrates US disregard for the well-being and economic security of billions of the worlds population.
With only 5% of the world’s population the US is trying to use its dollar exorbitant privelege to raise money to finance its profligacy, cost of war, vast debts and industrial decline at the expense of the only three powers that can and have challenged its hegemony. Europe has been turned from a balanced purchaser of energy into a US dependency. China, the world’s largest exporter and economy in PPP terms is suffering from US imposed technological apartheid and Russia has seen its national security threatened by an ever expanding NATO.
The construction and use by the US of military alliances and minilaterals such as NATO, Quad and AUKUS are designed to avoid the international multilateral order centred on the UN. Thus, the US can continue to exert political, economic and military force unilaterally and continue to destabilise any state that opposes its hegemonic will. The US mid-term elections on Nov 8th may alter the internal balance of US politics and potentially weaken both US monetary and fiscal capabilities. The G20 is the forum in which the BRICS and emerging economies can exert some restraint on the US. Both Brazil and Saudi Arabia are key players and the pricing of oil in Yuan and other currencies is, in many ways, the only solution to restrain US imperialism.
The US is one of the worst performers in climate change action and the transition to renewables. US corporations are amongst the worlds largest polluters and are tied to long fossil fuel supply chains. Thus at COP27 the US will be a follower and not a leader. A weakened Biden will also have little hope of convincing ASEAN leaders that US centrality, not ASEAN centrality, is good for the region. At the EAS, Biden will also have trouble convincing regional actors that Japanese rearmament is a good idea or that further militarisation of the Western Pacific and salami-slicing the One China Policy is conducive to regional security. APEC is no longer a key focus, because the so-called Indo-Pacific concept renders it almost redundant, that is why Biden will not attend in Bangkok.
In Bali, the non-aligned movement, ASEAN centrality, East Asian security fears of US aggression and the nuclearisation of the region and the Pacific will weigh heavily against Biden. The global south now has enough economic and political power to counter the US at the G20. Whether or not the G20 can be led by the BRICS toward de-dollarisation and reigning in US unilateralism is another question altogether.
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