Russia and the West Engaged in Fundamental Conflict between Globalists and Anti-Globalists, Shaburov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 23 – Many people in both Russia and the West view the current conflict in Ukraine as one between Russia and the West as such, Aleksey Shaburov says; but in fact, it is a conflict that is far deeper and involves divisions on both sides, between those committed to a globalized world and those opposed to such an order.

            The reason that this conflict has intensified now is that “economic globalization has reached the point at which political globalization must follow,” the Yekaterinburg analyst says. “But if with the economic form, everything is quite easy and simple, with its political form, there have arisen big problems” (politsovet.ru/73365-globalnyy-tupik-pochemu-byl-neizbezhen-bolshoy-mirovoy-konflikt.html).

            “Unifying the world economically isn’t difficult because on the economic plane, all people want approximately the same thing;” but unifying it politically is another matter as nations and national elites want different things. And they demand national sovereignty in order to protect and advance those things.

            The Russian leadership does not want to cede political control to a globalized world, but it is hardly alone, Shaburov continues. The exit of Great Britain from the European Union and the support Donald Trump has garnered among Americans to oppose international institutions are all part of the same impulse.

The reasons for these trends, he says, are obvious. “For the global economy to work ore effectively, there need to be common rules of the game, including political ones.” But the question arises: “who will establish these rules and enforce them?” Logically, the biggest economic powers will do this; but other countries don’t want such an arrangement.

This conflict is perhaps most clearly evident in fights about who will control the Internet, globalists who will want a single set of rules for the world or anti-globalists who insist that each country must have the right to do so.  But there are many other areas of conflict, and no one has come up with a solution acceptable to both sides.

According to Shaburov, Russia has made its choice to be a leader of the anti-globalists; and what happens to it will thus affect the fight between them and the globalists around the world. The globalists will seek to show that Russia’s approach is leading to a dead end; but Russia and other anti-globalists will insist on the contrary.

There is no easy way out of this contradiction, the Yekaterinburg commentator concludes; and there is no way to predict how things will work out. Only one thing is clear: in this conflict, both sides will pose as the defenders of morality; and the side that does ultimately win will insist that everyone accept its definition of this moral order.