THERE is a very modern way of looking at things which divides issues as either economic or political in nature.
The economic typical refers to all things related to private interests, which typically include nongovernment organizations, corporations, investors, consumers, etc… It also frames questions in terms of rights and individual well-being.
The political, on the other hand, is used in relations to government and public administration, which happens to include local governments, national governments, diplomatic apparati, military bodies, bureaucracies, etc.
It also frames itself in terms of policies and social fairness. This way of thinking is profoundly modern, though, and this public/private dichotomy is born from an age of peace.
Throughout most of human history, policies were usually not seen as either political or economic, but in existential terms. It asks the question: Does this course of action allow the nation / group / empire to survive and perpetuate in a dangerous and unpredictable world?
Questions of individual rights, economic growth, ideology, ethical/moral considerations and other modern concerns come second to existential questions, and for good reason.
Throughout most of history, before Pax Americana and the United Nations Security Council, nations existed in a state of nature. What Russia has done by invading Ukraine was to re-introduce that state of nature into the realm of geopolitics, defying American power, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the greater moral assumptions which have underpinned international relations since the end of the Cold War.
America hopes that it will be able to turn back through its sanctions or by removing Russian President Vladimir Putin, but I just don’t see it happening.
These past few weeks have caused a lot of damage to the global order. Putin has accelerated the decline of the age globalization and international law, and in its place will return expediency and hard decisions. No longer will nations frame strategies in terms of the political or the economic, but rather in terms of the existential.
Ukraine fights for existence. From its perspective, so is Russia. And very soon, all countries will begin thinking in the same way, I think./PN
