Last Friday of the month, 29th April we had another Discussion Group meeting, which was attended by 13 people.
The topic was very broad and multi-faceted, touching on subjects of the clash of great powers, hegemony, the Monroe doctrine ( it is the US foreign policy that covers all Western Hemisphere as its direct area of influence), and the Versailles treaty, which according to many historians led to the Second World War.
Kevin who suggested and led the topic introduced the above mentions points to start the discussion. He noted that the USA is a great power with a grand strategy to prevent other powers from growing which could in the future challenge the USA. America with its ready supply of money, economy, and military bases seeks to influence the World and change it to its own image by spreading liberal democracy to other countries.
Illustrating the Monroe doctrine, he gave an example by showing that if Canada or/and Mexico joined a military alliance with Russia and accepted its military bases the USA would never allow it to happen.
Referring to the Versailles treaty Kevin said that it is dangerous to push a nuclear power state such as Russia into a corner, reinforcing the Russian government’s conviction about existential threats to their country. As many political experts recognize, there is no clear information on how Putin thinks, he has a well-known distrust of the West, therefore it will be a big mistake to be so complacent about what he will and will not do in any future scenario.
Jeff expressed the opinion that such points of view are not right and nowadays it doesn’t matter much if nuclear weapons are close to the borders of other countries, like Russia. Many Russians do not want to live in Russia anyway. Other comments from the group were about Putin believing that he will be met with flowers in Ukraine, but now he is under threat and under big pressure. Ian mentioned that Putin is not acquainted with reality, maybe he has health problems and is seriously ill.
Chris’s opinion was that it is Putin’s war, not Russia’s and that China in theory might be a solution to the problem (war in Ukraine), also that Turkey is active in communication as an intermediary regarding settling any peace agreement.
Genevieve thought it was important to ask who is gaining from this war continuing, because it is clearly not Ukraine that has suffered terrible destruction, Russia who is under severe economic sanctions, or the EU. Chris’s reply was that one of those gaining was the EU because of reductions in CO2 and the movement to green energy after cutting Russia’s oil and gas supplies.
Genevieve mentioned that since the first written peace proposal by Ukraine to Russia nearly 2 months ago there appeared to be no more progress in negotiations. The West didn’t seem to encourage that to continue in any constructive way, but its military industries and corporations are getting huge profits from the arms given to Ukraine. Also, recently it was announced that the USA is funding a further 1 trillion dollars for the development of new nuclear weapons. It’s a pity that none of that amount is being considered to help with Global Climate change initiatives.
The discussion was lively, active, and interesting. All members of the Group enjoyed the meeting and in the spirit of our friendly discussions, we ended by going for a drink on the Arenal.
