In the middle of a global crisis focused on the current developments in Ukraine, the vast ocean of social media is rapidly populated by massive shoals of fish swimming in various directions, occasionally swallowed by trawling (read: trolling) sharks. To stay in calm waters, I chose to sketch my view on the tiny island of my personal website – comments welcome via LinkedIn or contact email !
I was born in Germany and identify myself as a European citizen. This is based on my perception of a common European cultural and ethical heritage, i.e. a peaceful co-existence of distinct people and common values of freedom. Having traveled extensively throughout the world, I have learned about different cultures and ethics in both geographically and politically distant countries. While I am – not without difficulties – able to identify myself with nations very much distinct from my own background, I understand that close listening and mutual respect is definitively a good basis to develop friendship and prosperity.
Presently, one is witnessing an outcry to more closely stand together and defend the values of Europe, embodied by the European Union acting as a political organization. I do think that the process of identification and re-alignment of values is very much desirable and vital to the existence and development of any organization. But I admit I do have my issues when it comes to the development and justification of some of its policies and actions:
Defending values routinely seems to translated into a bellicose scheme of identifying “other” values and interests as adverse or hostile and to implement defense as a sole show of (military or economical) force towards the alleged power of the enemy.
To make it crisp and clear, I condemn the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and there is simply no excuse to not immediately stop this war and to enter into a multilateral diplomatic process of negotiations. Now the house is on fire, it is first priority to put out the flames, then enter into (1) post-fire investigation and the implementation of (2) preventive actions.
Regarding these two actions I am of the opinion that the view has to be considerably enlarged from the narrow perspective of blaming “apparent” ideology or mad man’s action towards a deeper look into the cultural and historical background and developments leading up to the fatal spark igniting a war: Together with culture and history of a nation closely come its identity and pride – but sometimes also humiliation and pain. It is crucial to understand that a dissent or hostile attitude perceived and criticized by one party is frequently rooted in fear or abasement felt by the other side. All these are ingredients to a chemical cocktail that is susceptible to ignite – in contact with a catalyst, which can be as focused as a single political leader. It is important to independently attempt to defuse both sides: the flammable cocktail and its catalyst.
In this post I am aiming at prevention “beyond Russia” and I would like to focus on the cocktail rather than the catalyst.
In several aspects the international curriculum of Russia recalls parallels with China. In their long history, not only both countries experienced periods of impressive geo-political and economic influence, but also had to suffer – for prolonged periods of time – from decay of their glory due to economic and political factors acting from both the inside as well as under foreign pressure. Understandably nations are striving to preserve or restore their self-confidence, identity and global influence. To the present point in time, however, both nations achieved very different levels of development which can be analyzed objectively, i.e. economic prosperity (domestic / trade), civil rights, freedom of press, involvement in amicable international relationships.
With Russia currently being forced into deep political and economic isolation, I regrettably see many people in Europe anxiously looking at China to embody a sort of upcoming “Russia 2.0” which could serve as justification for adopting a rather contentious position in EU – China relationships. In the early days of the Ukraine war, I was initially pleased to see (on 03 March 2022) French president Macron, German chancellor Scholz and Chinese president Xi to engage in a joint video call.
Not being divided by ocean waters and by sharing the same Eurasian land mass bridging from Europe to Asia, I suggest that the current situation should be regarded by both European and Chinese leaders as a unique and huge opportunity to invest into furthering mutual understanding of the historic cocktail and to attempt to speak out and align cultural values and economic interests. “Trade leads to Peace” has been stated as early as by the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch and since has been repeatedly reflected in EU foreign policies. Of course, I hear people instantly reminding that fair trade might be in danger dealing with a giant China – but c’mon Europe, stop lamenting and boost innovation and competition in lieu of regulation ! China has undertaken a giant and long term effort to re-energize the ancient Silk Road land-based trade routes to Central Europe, rolling out their “Belt & Road Initiative” (one belt one road: 一带一路), facing geo-graphic/political challenges to circumnavigate Caspian and Black Sea waters via either Iran/Turkey or Russia. Eventually, both sides – Europe and China – have a common and vital interest in seeing Russia stabilize and prosper among them in respectful co-existence. Frankly, I think it’s more of a duty and responsibility to the world than a mere opportunity.
Coming back to the title of my post, I believe that debugging the world shall put considerably more effort on coordinated initiatives involving both Europe and China and that this process will be sort of a bitter pill to swallow for people so far exclusively focused on transatlantic security and trade policies.
