Multipolarity has been a reality check for the West. In previous decades, the Anglo-American establishment could scuttle regimes at will through direct military interventions, sanctions, color revolutions, or palace coups.
That’s how things went for the West in the latter stages of the Cold War well into the first decade of the 21st century. However, the game drastically changed with the emergence of Russia and China as major players on the world stage during the 2010s.
Fast forward to 2022, and we see multipolarity even more entrenched in the international system. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that there is more than one power that is willing to exert a sphere of influence within its historical domain. On top of that, Russia has leveraged its resource rich economy and strong economic ties with the Global South to weather the torrential wave of sanctions the Collective West has imposed on it.
Many pundits in the West have erroneously assumed that Russia is just a gas station with nukes. Recent events show that Russia’s economy is more diversified and it’s also more respected abroad than western foreign policy strategists assumed.
Former Congressman Ron Paul is one of the few individuals in the West who has woken up to the new realities of the international system. On May 28, 2022, Paul Twitter account posted:
Russia is a commodities powerhouse; China a manufacturing powerhouse. Both have HUGE stockpiles of gold & major trading relationships around the world.
Meanwhile, The Fed prints trillions of $$$’s and our government is hyper-interventionist at home and abroad — bankrupting us!
Russia is a commodities powerhouse; China a manufacturing powerhouse. Both have HUGE stockpiles of gold & major trading relationships around the world.
Meanwhile, The Fed prints trillions of $$$'s and our government is hyper-interventionist at home and abroad — bankrupting us!
— Ron Paul (@RonPaul) May 28, 2022
Paul then posted a link to a recent episode of The Ron Paul Liberty Report titled “Are China & Russia In Better Economic Shape Than We Are?” where he and his co-host Chris Rossini talked about how the US’s and EU’s sanctions push against Russia has largely backfired. The cited an article by geopolitical analyst Nick Giambruno titled “Five Warning Signs the End of Dollar Hegemony Is Near… Here’s What Happens Next” where Giambruno talked about the changing geoeconomic environment that Russia and China have largely been able to create.
Off the bat, Giambruno noted that “China is the world’s largest producer and buyer of gold. Russia is number two. Most of that gold finds its way into the Russian and Chinese governments’ treasuries.”
He added that “Russia and China can use their gold to engage in international trade and perhaps back the currencies.”
Despite all the sanctions imposed on Russia, the Russian ruble has stood surprisingly strong. The funny part is that the US and its dollar standard are no longer the only game in town. Giambruno observed that the “US government has incentivized almost half of mankind to find alternatives to the dollar by attempting to isolate Russia” through sanctions and other economically bellicose acts.
Paul called attention to how the US government abuses its monetary privilege through the use of sanctions, which are now becoming increasingly ineffective.
Many Western geopolitical tinkerers are scratching their heads at how the US can no longer throw its weight around in geopolitical affairs like it used to.
Again, Dr. Paul brings some much needed wisdom here. He declared that “our foreign policy [US government]has designed a situation… an environment that has made us not very popular around the world.”
The geopolitical chickens are now coming home to roost. The US’s over-reliance on sanctions and other punitive measures have created a nasty kind of blowback in the form of a new Eurasian balancing coalition that will check US hegemony abroad. Moreover, the US is getting pummeled at home with increasing inflation and deteriorating socio-economic conditions. Clearly, there are limits to the US’s foreign policy adventures. The polity has now reached the all-too familiar position of imperial overstretch.
Hopefully, realist minds end up prevailing and the US starts pursuing a rational retrenchment. If it doesn’t do so, it will become Rome 2.0, but with a much more explosive and disastrous ending.
