“Ukraine has united the world,” declared Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky in a speech on the first anniversary of the start of the war
with Russia. The war may have united the West, but it has left the world
divided. And that rift will only widen if Western countries fail to address its
root causes.
The traditional transatlantic alliance of European and North
American countries has mobilized in unprecedented fashion for a
protracted conflict in Ukraine. It has offered extensive humanitarian
support for people inside Ukraine and for Ukrainian refugees. And it is
preparing for what will be a massive rebuilding job after the war. But outside
Europe and North America, the defense of Ukraine is not on top of agenda.
Few governments endorse the brazen Russian invasion, yet
many remain unpersuaded by the West’s insistence that the struggle for freedom
and democracy in Ukraine is also theirs.
As French President Emmanuel Macron said at the
Munich Security Conference in February, “I am struck by how we have lost the
trust of the global South.” He is right. Western conviction about the war and
its importance is matched elsewhere by skepticism at best and outright disdain
at worst.
The gap between the West and the rest goes beyond the rights
and wrongs of the war. Instead, it is the product of deep frustration—anger, in
truth—about the Western-led mismanagement of globalization since the end of
the Cold War.
The concerted Western response to the Russian invasion of
Ukraine has thrown into sharp relief the occasions when the West violated its
own rules or when it was conspicuously missing in action in tackling global
problems.
Such arguments can seem beside the point in light of the
daily brutality meted out by Russian forces in Ukraine. But Western leaders
should address them, not dismiss them. The gulf in perspectives is dangerous
for a world facing enormous global risks. And it threatens the renewal of a
rules-based order that reflects a new, multipolar balance of power in the
world.
The Russian invasion has produced remarkable unity and
action from the liberal democratic world. Western countries have coordinated an
extensive slate of economic sanctions targeting Russia. European states have
increasingly aligned their climate policies on decarbonization with national
security-related commitments to end their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Western governments have rallied to support Ukraine with
enormous shipments of military aid. Finland and Sweden aim to be soon admitted
to NATO.
Europe has adopted a welcoming policy toward the eight
million Ukrainian refugees within its borders.
All these efforts have been advocated by a US administration
that has been sure-footed in partnering with European allies and others.
The squabbles over Afghanistan and the AUKUS security
partnership (a 2021 deal struck by Australia, the United Kingdom, and the
United States that irked France) seem a long time ago.
Many in the West have been surprised at this turn of events.
Clearly, so was the Kremlin, which imagined that its invasion would not provoke
a strong and determined Western response. The West’s unity and commitment are
not matched elsewhere.
At the beginning of the war, the UN General
Assembly voted 141 to 5, with 47 absences or abstentions, to condemn the
Russian invasion. But that result flattered to deceive.
“Most
non-European countries that voted to deplore Russia’s aggression last March did
not follow up with sanctions. Doing the right thing at the UN can be an alibi
for not doing much about the war in the real world.”
In a
series of UN votes since the war started, around 40 countries representing nearly
50% of the world’s population have regularly abstained or voted against motions
condemning the Russian invasion.
Fifty-eight countries abstained from a vote, in April 2022,
to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, two-thirds
of the world’s population lives in countries that are officially neutral or
supportive of Russia. These countries do not form some kind of axis of
autocracy; they include several notable democracies, such as Brazil, India,
Indonesia, and South Africa.
Much of
the fence-sitting is not driven by disagreements over the conflict in
Ukraine but is instead a symptom of a wider syndrome, anger at perceived
Western double standards and frustration at stalled reform efforts in the
international system.
The distinguished Indian diplomat Shivshankar Menon put the
point sharply in Foreign Affairs earlier this year when he wrote,
“Alienated and resentful, many developing countries see the war in Ukraine and
the West’s rivalry with China as distracting from urgent issues such as debt,
climate change, and the effects of the pandemic.”
Courtesy: Foreign Affairs
