A Decoupling of Two Systems or a New Paradigm for Humanity
Speakers from Russia and China added to the picture presented in the first panel of the Schiller Institute conference. Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), noted that the “severe economic and military actions against Russia are not a reaction to the deployment in Ukraine, but have been building for years”, for example with the creation of the AUKUS military bloc, the Quad, Biden’s “Summit of Democracies” and the constant expansion of military forces around Russia. The current consolidation of NATO, he argued, cannot last as the collapse of the dollar as the world currency is leading to the disintegration of the West, while a new coalition of forces is emerging in the world.
Professor Wang Wen, the Executive Dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, and Deputy Dean of the Silk Road School at Renmin University in China, reviewed the miraculous rise of China over the past 40 years, which was accomplished without any war or any serious financial crisis. Today, China accounts for 30% of annual world economic growth, and in Africa for example, it provides 60% of the investments. China, he stressed, sees its strength as a benefit for world development, and peace.
Col. Richard Black (ret.), former head of the Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, and former Virginia State Senator, spoke sternly on the topic, “Ukraine Has Lost the War: But Thermonuclear War Still Threatens”. He reviewed the situation in Ukraine, pointing out that, “The war is not over, but Ukraine has lost.” The sanctions have failed in this stated intent to destroy the Russian economy and to isolate the country, and must be lifted. He denounced as madness, those Western voices raising the prospect of using nuclear weapons.
Three more speakers completed the panel. Sam Pitroda, a former cabinet minister or adviser to seven Indian prime ministers, who called for a thorough-going redesign of the world’s economy and society, stressing Gandhian principles of nonviolence, and “truth, trust, and love.”
Dr. Wolfgang Bittner, a German doctor of law and a prolific author, spoke on “The West-East Conflict — An Orchestration.” He refuted myths of “Western values” being defended in Ukraine, when neo-Nazis are openly part of the military. He stressed that Germany today, as well as Europe, remains subservient to U.S. policy.
Clifford Kiracofe, a former Senior Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, and President of the Washington Institute for Peace and Development, decried the U.S. leading the West back to a Cold War “crusade” against the reality of a world of multipolarity and the rise of China. At the same time, the West is creating “helicopter money” and using negative interest rate credit to bail out banks and fund the military as the real economy collapses. The sanctions are forcing Russia and China to create an alternative financial system, but, he insisted, “two competing systems is not a solution,” we need a new, all-inclusive, international system and the restoration of diplomacy.
