In other points raised by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his speech at the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy on 11 April, he considered the aftermath of the Cold War, quoted Gordon Brown about "de-globalization" and spoke about what he described as the new era of "consensus politics" in the world.
On the first of those points, he decried the West's "triumphalism" in the aftermath of the Cold War. While for some in the West the Cold War did not end, and their policy of Russia's "containment" continued, Russia "withdrew" from it, Lavrov said, and benefited from that. The "tough pragmatism" of Russia's partners dispelled Russia's illusions, he said.
He went on to consider the "Western world order", which he implied could not be universal. In practice, the world entered a "transitional" stage in its development, he said, from "bipolar" to "something freer and fairer, as well as more democratic, which presupposed a far broader consensus"; new centres of economic, financial and political power arose in the process of globalization.
"De-globalization"; crisis and war
Lavrov went on to quote Gordon Brown about the danger of "de-globalization". He also drew attention to how crises - and the development of democracy - had led to war. "We can now recall a recent image Gordon Brown formulated. We are threatened with the stage of de-globalization - there was a similar process in the Great Depression ... when in the search for a way out, economies were militarized, which was what led to a new war. "In general, regrettably war played far from a small role in the development of Western democracy.
For example, the strengthening of the English parliament's positions with regard to royal power was the product of the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. "Let us not go as far back as that in history, although lessons from it certainly need to be learnt. Arnold Toynbee also remarked on another historical pattern. Militarism also served as a means of empires' self-destruction. If we look at the period of the Cold War, we will have to admit that it was precisely the militarization of foreign policy that in large measure predetermined the choice of this policy.
It was a Cold War policy with its irrational expenditure of all types of resources. "The peculiar feature of World War II and the Cold War was that first the struggle for survival and then ideological confrontation ensured quite a high level of motivation at the level of states and individuals, which as a whole was quite an important factor of scientific and technological progress either side of the barricades. Let us hope that humanity will at long last stop here and finds other sources of technological development. For the moment, it is difficult to second-guess what those specific paths the establishment of a new technological foundation of the global economy will take are, but it is of course desirable to motivate a new technological breakthrough with positive factors. I mean here the imperative of sustainable development and solutions to a wide range of highly important problems, including energy security and climate change, on which humanity's survival hinges," Lavrov said.
Crisis; "socialization"
He went on to comment on what he described as a "systemic crisis of global government", but also on what he said was the trend of "socialization" in Western economies. "The social orientation in the model of economic development, with reliance on the middle class, was, if I may suggest it thus, the enforced product of the Cold War, when the US and the ruling elite in Western Europe reacted to what could be described as the challenge of the Soviet Union. They reacted along the lines of socialization of Western European and in part the US economy.
Be that as it may, it was along those lines that European society created a stable model of economic development, and fulfilled the promise of the French Revolution about a fairer social order. "Attempts to abandon the social orientation of the economic model have led to what President Sarkozy said was a systemic crisis, when this system moved away from its fundamental, including moral, values," Lavrov said.
Europe; G20; "fusion"
He went on to say that nation states continued to serve as a "basic link" in international relations. During the Cold War, the US, Europe and the USSR were the dominant forces in international affairs. With the end of the Cold War, he said, "European civilization" should stake its claim to a "place among the leaders" at this stage of international development. For that, Lavrov said, the notion of leadership should be "reformulated" - "based on a will and skill to find the common denominator of the interests of all members of the international community, of all major groups of states". "I think that G20 summits are a major stride in this direction," Lavrov remarked.
He went on to describe the global processes as "fusion" in the face of common threats. "To talk about Russia's role as some kind of counterweight to the historical West would I think mean to operate in categories of the past. "What is taking place can be called fusion, which I think determines a new point of convergence in Euro-Atlantic relations. This is about stable convergence on the solid foundation of major convergent interests of all Euro-Atlantic nations faced with global threats," Lavrov said, where it is "imperative for our region to find its proper place in the formation of a polycentric system of global government", as he put it. "I am convinced that there can be no going back to previous spheres of influence.
This is about a natural way in which groups of nations are drawn towards each other, including in the form of various integration processes. We do not ask or demand anything from our Western partners, including the EU, other than a clear and transparent policy in the CIS," he also said, a policy "based first and foremost on respect for the legitimate interests of these states there". He talked about the importance of such regional cooperation as is now in progress in the CIS, such as Eurasec.
"Consensus politics"
In conclusion, Lavrov professed "idealism" when he spoke about "ambitious" goals that lead the world away from the Cold War. "On the subject of idealism, the global nuclear zero - is that not an idealistic goal? Of course it is. However, it is vitally necessary to move towards it with specific, real, practical action," he said. He went on to raise the point of "consensus politics".
"We are I think about to enter a new important phase in international relations, which I would describe as an era of consensus politics, as without the broadest possible consensus no solution can be found to any general or any particular problem in global politics, be it a new world order or specific conflicts and crises," Lavrov said.
