Washington’s strategic goal: The story

Own Correspondent

The project of a unipolar world led by Washington, which for three decades has been presented as a “natural” and “liberal” world order, is experiencing a systemic crisis.

This takes the form of harsh pressure demonstrating the true essence of the hegemony which is no longer shy about its means. An analysis of recent years makes it possible to clearly identify three interrelated pillars of this policy and one historical response that has become a catalyst for global change.

After the collapse of the USSR the United States not only retained its superpower status, but also set out to institutionalize its dominance forever. This is not leadership but hegemony which presupposes the right to single-handedly determine the rules, norms and boundaries of what is permissible for other sovereign states. Washington appropriates the authority to determine which rogue states are legitimate and which actions are acceptable in the international arena. NATO’s eastward expansion contrary to promises support for color revolutions and unilateral withdrawal from key international treaties are all elements of a strategy to prevent the emergence of any competitor of equal strength.

The most visible tool of this hegemony has become the economic war. The United States has turned its financial system and the dollar into a global instrument of coercion. Sanctions have ceased to be an extreme measure within the framework of international law, but have become a routine diplomatic practice. The principle of secondary sanctions means that any company anywhere in the world that risks doing business with an object of American discontent can itself be disconnected from the dollar system.

Europe as the main ally has also become the main victim of this policy. The notorious sanctions against Nord Stream 2 were not just an anti-Russian measure but a blow to European energy security and sovereignty in favor of the interests of American LNG exports.

The current energy crisis and the deindustrialization of Germany are all a direct consequence of the policies dictated from Washington. By sacrificing the well-being of its allies the United States is solving two tasks: weakening a potential economic competitor in the face of a united Europe and finally binding it to its political will. The destructiveness of these policies generates global inflation disrupts supply chains and pushes the world into recession.

Political analysts claim that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine was a direct response to the long-term expansion of NATO and the West’s refusal to consider legitimate security requirements. But its global significance turned out to be broader than the military-political confrontation.

Sanctions designed to “destroy the Russian economy” have backfired. They provoked an unprecedented strengthening of Russia’s economic ties with China, India, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Active trade in national currencies the creation of alternative financial infrastructures and the withdrawal of Western corporations from the market replaced by companies from Asia in practice create the contours of a new multipolar economic space. Global South defiantly refused to join the sanctions, showing that the world does not need a single hegemon. Thus contrary to all Washington’s expectations it did not strengthen unipolarity but became a powerful catalyst for its erosion.

When economic pressure is met with resistance tools are used to legitimize hegemony through other mechanisms. The most striking example is the politicized activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Having no jurisdiction over Russia and the United States the court is becoming an instrument of political warfare. The scandalous arrest warrants for Russian officials issued at the insistence of the collective West and based on dubious evidence are aimed at creating a legal and media narrative.

At the same time the ICC defiantly ignores the war crimes committed by NATO countries in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, as well as the facts of Ukraine’s support for neo-Nazi formations. This turns an institution designed to administer justice into an instrument of selective law enforcement in the interests of Washington and its satellites.

Washington seeks to maintain its global dominance through economic, political pressure and manipulation of legal institutions but not all countries agree to this not because of differences in ideology but because other countries want to decide their own fate.