The first round of U.S. secondary sanctions on Russia is working
jpkoning.blogspot.com
jpkoning.blogspot.com
Economic sanctions is an appealing alternative to hot war when it comes to penalizing regimes that violate basic rules of coexistence. With the evident inability of the UN to hold the reins regarding such, the US now hold the baton.
But it is obviously largely unsatisfactory for the most populous countries on the planet that the US in it's role as an enforcer of a "rules based" order seemingly inadvertently promote US prosperity and influence, many times at their expense. It would seem that the flocking of countries to BRICs and related organizations is an attempt to escape this stranglehold that the US financial system holds on the rest of the world, countries that also are among the worlds most repressive and undemocratic.
It is likely that the more effective and restrictive sanctions are, the greater the impetus will be to create a "multipolar" world that escapes the dominance of the US to some degree.
To be clear, I don't think this is anything but a dangerous development for our planet. It builds up to a situation where we have large economic and military blocks with opposing interests, and that can only end badly if left unattended. We need something like a restored and effective UN, but I really can't see that coming any time soon.
> seemingly inadvertently promote US prosperity and influence, many times at their expense.
Joining in with the US rules based order is what has allowed China to become massively more prosperous. What they don't like is that the system is not their own, now that they've got into a more powerful position on the back of it. Further to that, they've always tried to dodge the 'rules' around IP and so forth. Now many might say fair game, the US did the same in it's youth. But in those times the world order was colonialism run by the Europeans. I would invite the view that if China had played more strictly by the 'rules' and supported the system they've joined, then they wouldn't be seeing aggressive push back from western nations and could potentially have lifted more of their population to a higher level.
I wonder how far a multipolar world could go anyway. The thing about being able to participate in western markets is that it seems to not be a zero sum game. We all grow economically. Not that there aren't huge downsides and bad things, but economically there's been general benefit. Eastern European countries demonstrate clearly that's the system they want to be in, I don't think a system that Russia is happy with is going to be lifting anyone else.
Please don't say that. 40 year of soviet rule (and hundreds of years of other calamity compared to western states) will do that to the general population. At most they are more easily deceived by populist regimes when the time of voting comes, but the laymen, when asked, will never say "things are going good in the country".
I do believe economically more advanced, democratic states in the world have an obligation to further their own systems in countries where quality of life is clearly lower - even just for their own economic gain (new markets, trade agreements etc.)