Jubilee of the Monopolar World

A decade ago the Persian Gulf War was underway, a military operation of the USA and their allies against Iraq. It was precisely ten years ago when it became possible to talk of the beginning of the establishment of a new world order. However, then the talk was about only the very beginning. The operation was approved by the UN, and the reason for it was quite obvious: Iraq had just committed military aggression against Kuwait, which Saddam Hussein had declared a historical province of Iraq. And then it became obvious that the system of balance based on the Cold War no longer existed; instead there was a force capable of not only dictating to the world its own vision of the main principles of this very world, but also to ensure they were carried out.

In the case with Iraq it seemed at first that everything was clear. An aggressor was punished, Iraq remained within the ranks of the world community only conditionally, and from time to time American and British air forces would make punitive raids when the Iraqi regime violated the conditions imposed on it. Then it turned out there were also collateral (perhaps even more important) elements: even if Iraq suddenly replaced the Hussein regime with another more loyal to the West, it would hardly be able to return to the ranks of number of the leading oil exporters. Meanwhile the embargo on ties with Baghdad were painful for the postcommunist world. Ukraine, incidentally, could only look on, as the Polish Embassy in Baghdad represented political and economic interests of the USA, the Romanian Embassy, of France, and as Western companies little by little closely examined empty segments of the market that would sooner or later begin operating at least at part of its former capabilities. Incidentally, it was precisely during the Persian Gulf operation that the political star of Colin Powell, now appointed US Secretary of State, first rose and when depleted uranium was first used widely.

The second stage of establishing Pax Americana took place during the Balkan wars, when Western Europe heaved a sigh of relief at watching American political, and then military activity in its own house. During the operations in Bosnia, incidentally, ammunition with depleted uranium was also used. In Bosnia, for the first time since the Korean War, international forces under the banner of the UN carried out military operations (strikes on Bosnian Serb positions.)

The events concerning Kosovo that ended in allied air strikes against Yugoslavia became one of the culmination points in the development of a new world situation. It was not completely similar to the Persian Gulf War, since that time the West decided to act without UN approval. This new word in world politics met many more opponents than the war against Iraq, and at the same time it became clear once and for all that no world power can compete with Washington in influence and ability to convince that its arguments were right. And now one can hear in Western Europe protests only against the use of depleted uranium, which might have caused of several deaths from leukemia of Italian, Portuguese, Belgian, and French military personnel, not against the new system in principle. Already, by the way, even among Western experts an opinion is being spread that Milosevic’s Yugoslavia had been punished in order “to reduce it to a common denominator.”

For precisely ten years the world has existed in a monopolar dimension, with its inherent black and white colors in portraying those crisis situations that had already taken place, and seeking a way out of them. However, this does not apply, at least for the time being, to those who are not altogether all right, but who can hit back.

This a priori drives into a corner Ukraine and countries like it, which are now too weak to stand up for their point of view, and at the same time cannot find any compensation for opportunities lost in Iran, Iraq, and Yugoslavia. The last ten years once more underlined that everywhere and always, the strong are respected. And nobody will help you become strong. They seem to have begun pondering this in Kyiv now.