A distinctive feature of western political thinking is its astonishing capacity to justify and self-absolve when the West commits atrocities or tolerates those perpetrated by allies.
This attitude is combined with a peculiar tendency to see everywhere enemies who are allegedly determined to destroy freedom and democracy.
This is nothing new; it is neither a byproduct of the Cold War era nor of the post-Cold War one. Its roots go back thousands of years, at least to the ancient Greeks facing the Persians, and fits with Edward Said’s observation that modern societies tend to “derive a sense of their identities negatively”. In other words, they affirm and reinforce themselves in comparison with other societies deemed to be opposite and inferior.
To a certain extent, this is a binary distinction resulting from the dichotomous thinking inherited from Aristotelian philosophy, which continues to shape western political thought.
A recent political construct supporting this mindset is the “democracy versus autocracy” narrative incessantly promoted by the Biden administration, to the point that it was fully incorporated into the US national security strategy, and whose fundamental ideas have been promptly accepted by Washington’s lost and disoriented European allies, apparently unable to develop autonomous strategic thinking attached to their own national interests.
This narrative frames Russia, Iran and China as the three main autocracies threatening the US-led rules-based world order, which, regardless of how many western theorists try to portray it as international law, is actually something quite different. Rather, it could be aptly summarised by the motto: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”
The test cases of the new western narrative are the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, in addition to issues with China over the South China Sea, Taiwan, and the latter’s impressive technological accomplishments.
Read more: The West’s last gasp of global dominance – By Marco Carnelos
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
