A One-Man Show the West Neglected to Understand

We now live in a world of fewer misconceptions

Vladimir Putin image banned in Russia courtesy Wikimedia Commons

During the last few days — and over the past decade — Vladimir Putin has done more than any other human to remind us that the world order we have taken for granted is remarkably fragile.

Earlier this week, Putin raised the threat of nuclear war when he ordered his country’s strategic prevention forces to be on a heightened state of alert. Some analysts remarked that the order was meant to intimidate the United States and NATO from the Ukraine conflict. What brought us to this point?

Relationship with Russia is entirely incompatible

As the war has entered an uglier and bloodier phase, one we watch unfold daily, we wonder whether to believe that Vladimir Putin is a master chess player as dubbed for so many years. Instead, many believe he has revealed himself fickle and obstinate in a self-destructive approach. He has done so, launching a massive invasion that has left his country isolated in ways unimaginable and another country in ruin with many people dead.

The invasion opens a new, dark chapter of history. Across Europe, people again realize that they live on a continent where war is a reality; a wake-up call, leaving intelligence agencies open for a critical re-examination. It is no secret that Russia has no interest in acknowledging an international order founded on principles established in the West and which Putin sees as favoring Western interests. Putin’s approach to a mutual relationship has been focused on opportunism and short-term tactical gains at the expense of longer-term security solutions. The New York Times even supposed that “Mr. Putin has a history of waiting until the last possible moment to make a decision, constantly re-evaluating his options” (Feb. 15, 2022 ). The intention of an autocratic leader is a challenge, especially Putin because he avoids electronic devices, often bans note-takers, and reveals little to even his closest aides.

What did the West get wrong?

Over the past decade, Russian foreign policy has been progressively aggressive, confrontational, and ambitious. And now, in a blink of an eye, Western world leaders went from believing that the only feasible solution to any problem was dialogue to staring into the face of a paranoid and unhinged dictator’s ranting, frightening those who were praising his “savvy” just a few days ago.

If only anyone had paid attention

After the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, the West lost an opportunity to invest in a strategic security partnership with Ukraine, which would have made the current costs of a Russian offensive exorbitantly high. Instead, the U.S. entertained fantasies about what might be accomplished with Russia for two decades. Contrary to wishful thinking by many Euro-Atlantic politicians and policymakers, there is now the realization that Putin’s Russia will not become a more constructive and cooperative partner for Western governments. Yet, it is no secret that Russian officials and analysts have expressed increasingly harsh views of the U.S.-led international order since the end of the Cold War.

The West and the United States are slowly waking to a new, cold realization that Putin is not someone you can deal with, as many in Berlin, Paris, London, and Washington wrongly believed. Russia’s strategic goals differ irrevocably from those of the West. But the U.S. and European leaders bear the burden of guilt by claiming they did all they could to prevent another invasion. They offered a necessary response but fell victim to wishful thinking about the Kremlin’s ambitions in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fundamental commitment to further his agenda.

To understand this and fully appreciate the significance of such behavior, one must follow the trajectory of Russian foreign policy since 2000 and Putin’s mentality and inner circle. Moscow has engaged in an unofficial hybrid war against the West, employing cyber-attacks, information manipulation, political interference, electronic warfare, and other methodologies.

Weakness in the failing of American identity

The Russian attack is shocking, but it ought not to be altogether surprising to anyone who has been paying attention. In the last few decades, the West has been weakened by being dragged into identity wars. Vladimir Putin saw this as a weakness, criticizing the West for its culture wars and destructive identity politics. He observed the division across religious freedom, LGTB rights, race, gender, and class. No surprise there. Moral decay, cultural suicide, and political disunity have opened Putin’s doors to take advantage.

Historically American national identity has been characterized by the heritage of Western civilization and politically by the principles of the American Creed: liberty, democracy, individualism, equality before the law, and constitutionalism.

Things have changed in the late twentieth century. American identity has come under sustained onslaught from a small but influential number of intellectuals. Under the banner of multiculturalism, scholars have criticized the identification of the United States with Western civilization. They reject the existence of American culture and promote racial, ethnic, and subnational cultural identities. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., an American historian social critic, said that the multiculturalists are “often ethnocentric separatists who see little in the Western heritage other than Western crimes.” He goes on to say that the current “mood is one of divesting Americans of the sinful European inheritance and seeking redemptive infusions from non-Western cultures.”

Change

However, as quickly as Putin invaded Ukraine, that is how fast things began to change. The previous response to Putin’s misbehavior was “Deep concern,” now replaced by the idea of “real action.” Less than a week into the infiltration, the EU announced harsh sanctions on Russian banks, companies, and individuals. Several individual European states are sending weapons and applying their sanctions.

Europeans have also abruptly stopped some of their doubts about Ukraine’s membership in their institutions. And now, though grossly late, the parliamentarians from across the continent voted to accept Zelenskyy’s application for EU membership.

As European leaders vow to punish Russia for launching this conflict on their continent, what happens now?

This is enormously significant, and it is not an understatement to say the world has changed overnight. And no matter how the war ends — and many scenarios are still imaginable — we already live in a realm with fewer illusions.

Thank you for reading and sticking with me to the end.

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