Ukraine War And The Leadership Battle: Rather Than National Interests And World Peace – OpEd

“Everyone will suffer losses and that is why we are for peace. Recent geo-political events show the fragility of global peace and stability and how interconnected countries are. At the beginning of the crisis, we had immediately called for a ceasefire and emphasised that dialogue was the only way to resolve.”   –   PM Modi in Germany (02 May)

Ukraine War has been covered 24×7 and why not?  Courage of the Ukrainians has been applauded across all spectrums. This war has been thrust upon Ukraine and it must stop, as this war has now become leadership individualistic, rather than fighting for national interests and world peace. “Having pushed Ukraine into war, the US does not know how to save it. Having started it, Russia does not know where and how to end it.”

The concept of ‘Soft Power’ was introduced by American theorist Joseph Nye. He offered examples of soft power that were instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent establishment of the US as the world’s sole superpower. The problem with soft power is always in how it is measured, both in general and in specific cases. One may ask to what extent the soft power sanctions might be effective in reaching political goals in the context of the Ukraine crisis. Some soft sanctions seek to damage the other side. The key idea behind soft power is winning the hearts and minds of others. Soft power consists of three resources: Political values, culture and foreign policies.  

World is shifting toward more and fiercer confrontations, including the possible threat of use of nuclear weapons, soft power’s effectiveness lies not in division, but rather as a solution. This is the only way forward in this conflict. The World is One Family! “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. This phrase is another demonstration of the all-inclusive attitude that the Indian tradition has and believes in. Unity in diversity is something that we have been practicing for thousands of years.

One crucial element of foreign policy and diplomacy in particular, is to find routes to overcoming a crisis through softer approaches and to find common ground and diplomatic solutions through the soft power of diplomacy. But in this Ukraine war diplomacy has failed to take off and has led to the battle of individualistic leadership ego forgetting national interests and world peace culminating into overall devastation.

Biden dislikes Putin

For more than 20 years, Joe Biden has questioned Vladimir Putin’s true intentions. “I don’t trust Putin,” Joe Biden said in the days after the June 2001 Bush-Putin summit in Slovenia. Biden has long told his colleagues: “All foreign policy is an extension of personal relationships.”

In the March 2011 encounter with Putin in Moscow, Biden said, “Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.” Biden met with Russian opposition activists during that same visit, and he told them that it would be better for their country if Putin didn’t run for the presidency again. 

If anything, Biden’s public comments about Putin over the past two decades, as well as accounts from current and former US officials, suggest that the US president harbours a deep, lasting skepticism of the former KGB officer Putin. “Biden sees Putin as someone who is rational, thuggish — someone who is not confined by any sense of morality or concern over human rights or anything of that nature … just a cold, hard realistic assessment of the man.”

This war was never a conflict between only Ukraine and Russia, but a proxy war between Washington and Moscow. Now the US is planning to take the war to the next level.  Bloomberg reported that “Biden seeks to rob Putin of his top scientists with visa lure.” Create Brain Drain in Russia. Russia and the US have clashed over everything from the war in Syria to Kremlin-backed interference in American elections.

Dr. Paul asked in mid-March, “Is Washington fighting Russia  down to the last  Ukraine ?” That explains why the US is pouring billions of dollars in military equipment into notoriously corrupt Ukraine – with another $33 billion! 

Putin’s hatred and mistrust of the US – West

The Russian president’s enduring antagonism toward the West is a complex tale, one compounded of Putin’s near 70 year old personal life as a child of World War II and career Soviet spy.  

Macbeth and Putin both held or hold a very high amount of power. Both are ruthless leaders willing to do whatever it takes to gain control and hold on to it, at any cost. Shakespeare’s Macbeth starts out as a noble military man, regarded as courageous by many. Similarly, Putin started out in the KGB, which is associated with the Russian military. Macbeth and Putin both display how gaining a high position of power quickly and forcefully can leave someone both unstable and unstoppable. They are related in the ways they gain control, how respected they are, their tragic flaws, and how much power they actually hold. Though one is fictional and one is still alive and currently ruling. Fictional Macbeth is being played real in Europe’s Ukraine.(Macbeth and Putin Relationship.gram.com/essay)

Whether or not Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine ends any time soon, what is certain to continue is the Russian president’s abiding hatred and mistrust of the US and other Western powers, which he believes left him no choice but to launch an unprovoked war.

Poor Zelensky trapped to be Biden’s Proxy

“All of us will perceive even the possibility of negotiations – I am not even talking about the content of the talks – as a challenge. The challenge is internal, first of all, one’s own, human challenge. What shall we do now? Then, when you pull yourself together, and you have to do it, I think that I have no other choice” – Zelensky

If Zelensky is ready for negotiations having seen the devastation of his country then why the UN is not negotiating a peace deal for the warring nations? On the other hand Zelensky says;“If the world would like to end this war, it needs to supply us with heavy weapons.” This supply of heavy weapons is no solution to bring an early end to the war but will only escalate and prolong the war bringing further destruction and misery to Ukraine and Ukraine only. President Zelensky need to understand this game early that he is being used as a proxy by the West to fight Russia. US and the West are not interested to end the war early.

Confrontational  Leadership

There could be no chemistry between Biden and Putin, thus US and Russia relations are bound to become even more confrontational. Some observers pointed out that the end of the conflict will, eventually, come through a negotiation between Ukraine and Russia, sooner or later. But the US government wants to dictate the terms to Ukraine, and Biden’s real intention is to prolong the war, weakening Russia and drawing Russia back into the Afghan trap in Ukraine into the Afghan like trap in Ukraine. So finally it will be the ego and battle of wits of the three players Putin-Zelensky-Biden to prove their individualistic leadership forgetting national interests and world peace culminating into overall devastation with no winners, but all losers.

Reference:

Role of Soft Power in Ukraine Conflict By Dr Diana Galeeva