Southwest Asia: The Battle for a New Paradigm More Urgent than Ever

There have been two reactions internationally to the terrible escalation of events and loss of lives in Israel/Gaza. There are those trying to exploit it for geopolitical reasons and those calling for ceasefire, and for addressing the underlying causes. On the geopolitical side, Washington immediately sent into the Eastern Mediterranean a battle group led by the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. The European Union announced a complete review of its assistance to Palestine, and Israel has imposed a “complete siege” to cut off all electricity, water, food and other supplies to the 2.3 million people of Gaza.

However, to analyze and seek a way out of any such crisis, one needs to start from the highest level. Schiller Institute Chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche proposed to do just that in a private discussion on Oct. 9. She stressed that, whatever the particulars of the situation on the ground, one cannot look at these crisis points individually, one by one. Although each one has its own prehistory and current history, “they are an expression of the existential battle between an old paradigm and a new paradigm”. Therefore, they can only be resolved through a new paradigm, “a security and development architecture which includes the interests of every single nation”.

As our newsletter has stressed repeatedly, a tectonic change in international relations is ongoing right now, away from the unipolar, neo-colonial world order, and its hopelessly bankrupt financial and banking system, as the Global South, or the Global Majority, asserts the right to economic development and independence. In that context, we have the war in Ukraine, with the very real danger of a third world war, the resistance to a global NATO, the threat of a military escalation with China over Taiwan, and many smaller conflicts such as over Nagorno-Karabakh, in Africa, etc. And now, Southwest Asia is exploding.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche noted that “there are many, many reasons why these things happen, but the overall reason is that the present dying system of colonialism and imperial order is in an obvious existential fight against the emerging new paradigm”. Therefore, the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche movement are commited to mobilizing for “the establishment of a new security and development architecture, because only then can there be a peaceful resolution.”