Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!

President Biden at the United Nations General Assembly.Doug Mills/The New York Times

By David Leonhardt
New York Times
20 September 2023

President Biden has made it a signature phrase of his administration: The world is engaged in “a battle between democracy and autocracy.”

He publicly expressed a version of this idea at least a dozen times during his first year in office and a dozen more during his second year, according to Factba.se, an online database that tracks his remarks. But Biden has used it less often during his third year in office — and he notably did not use the phrase when speaking to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday. Last year, in the same setting, he did use it.

What explains the change? Biden still very much believes in the basic idea, but he and other administration officials have come to think that the framing comes with downsides.

Biden’s phrase accurately captures the leading players in today's core struggle for global influence. The US, Japan, South Korea, Western Europe, and a few other wealthy countries are healthy democracies on one side of the divide. Russia and China are autocracies on the other side.

Many other countries, however, have not chosen sides. Depending on the issue, they will work closely with Washington and Beijing. These countries tend to be flawed democracies (like Brazil, India, Israel, and Nigeria) or autocracies (like Saudi Arabia and Vietnam). If the US suggests that only democracies are welcome in its alliance, that alliance will shrink.

“Defining the current contest as one between democracies and autocracies is a flawed strategy,” Walter Russell Mead, a foreign policy expert at the Hudson Institute, wrote in The Wall Street Journal this spring. “Abroad, this approach weakens America’s ties with key allies and exposes us to devastating charges of systemic hypocrisy.” Mead is a conservative who often criticizes Biden, but some administration members have had similar concerns, as Peter Baker, The Times’s chief White House correspondent, has reported.

In June, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, acknowledged the tension. “I do think we are dealing with the gathering and march of autocratic forces in ways that are not in the United States’ national interest and that we do need to rally the values, norms, and forces of democracy to push back against that,” Sullivan said. But, he added, Biden “has also been clear that in that larger effort, we need constructive relationships with countries of all different traditions and backgrounds.”

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen.

EDITORIAL | Embarrassing! A Presidential Speech that Insults the Intelligence of Every American

Who’s he kidding? Two-thirds of the UN Member States have no ears for President Biden’s message. The people of the world are fuming. Does anyone want a nuclear crater in their backyard? If the leader of the free world cannot bring peace to the table, he has one exit. Get out of the kitchen.

Only a handful of mindless sheep, an estimated 35 percent living in the European Union and North America, buy the Western narrative. Everyone who is anyone everywhere has a smartphone. People know what is going on.

Hasn’t Mr. Biden read the handwriting on the wall? The EU-US/NATO Pact is no longer the lone policeman in the world, and the President of the United States is no longer the world’s sole unelected Police Chief.

Several other sheriffs are now in town. The BRICS+ new reality is yeasty. BRICS+ blocks the EU-US/NATO’s autocratic hegemony in its tracks.

The EU-US/NATO Axis will remain the King of the Hill but with less hegemony. The tectonic change in global affairs demands cooperation, not destruction. President Biden cannot repudiate this reality. The Biden Administration must set the alarm to a new wake-up call.

Every one of us, from North to South and East to West, will rejoice in the change of the guard. It is no longer ‘us versus them.’ It is ‘WE.’ It’s about us. We all have smartphones. And though smartphones can be manipulated and exploited, they can also free humanity from deception – misinformation and disinformation. People must discern the good from the bad and the ugly daily. In the final analysis, good will prevail.

WEST HAS ‘NO HONEST ARGUMENTS’ ON UKRAINE – LAVROV

NATO countries prefer “slogans” over substantive dialogue, the Russian foreign minister said

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine in New York City on September 20, 2023. © Timothy A. Clary / AFP

HomeRussia & FSU
21 September 2023

The West does not want to take an honest look at the origins of the Ukraine crisis and only resorts to pinning the blame on Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the UN on Wednesday.

               “Today, the rhetoric of our opponents is filled with slogans: ‘invasion,’ ‘aggression’, ‘annexation.’ And not a single word about the root causes of the problem,” Lavrov said in a speech at the UN Security Council.

He accused the West of “fostering a blatantly Nazi regime [in Ukraine], which has been openly rewriting the results of World War II and the history of its people.”

               “The West is avoiding having a substantial discussion based on facts and the respect for all tenets of the [UN] Charter. It doesn’t have arguments for an honest dialogue,” the minister said.

Moscow has insisted that it was forced to launch its military operation in Ukraine last year to protect the people of Donbas and has cited Kyiv’s failure to implement the 2014-2015 Minsk peace accords. The West has also thrown its support behind the nationalists, who came to power during the 2014 coup in Kyiv, Russian officials have said.

Lavrov accused the Ukrainian authorities of stonewalling peace negotiations. He noted that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky issued a decree in October 2022 in which he stated “the impossibility of conducting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

               “If the US is interested in [negotiations], I believe it wouldn’t be difficult for them to instruct [Kyiv] to have Zelensky’s decree revoked,” Lavrov said.

Meaningful negotiations between Russia and Ukraine broke down in the spring of 2022, with both sides blaming each other. Putin said Ukrainian negotiators approved a draft treaty on Kyiv’s neutrality – one of Moscow’s key demands – but later went back on their words, “throwing away” the agreement.

Kyiv has since insisted that negotiations can resume only after Moscow surrenders Crimea and four other former Ukrainian territories, which joined Russia after holding referendums in 2014 and September 2022, respectively. Moscow has repeatedly rejected this condition as unacceptable.

ZELENSKY'S 'BAD MOMENT'

The Ukrainian leader resorts to lies and threats at the tail end of a failing counteroffensive

BAND OF BROTHERS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, US Climate Envoy John Kerry, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listen as President Joe Biden addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday. / Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images.

By Seymour Hersh
Substack.com
21 September 2023

Next Tuesday will be the anniversary of the Biden administration’s destruction of three of the four pipelines of Nord Stream 1 and 2. There is more I have to say about it, but it will have to wait. Why? The war between Russia and Ukraine, with the White House rejecting any ceasefire talk, is at a turning point.

There are significant elements in the American intelligence community, relying on field reports and technical intelligence, who believe that the demoralized Ukraine army has given up on the possibility of overcoming the heavily mined three-tier Russian defense lines and taking the war to Crimea and the four oblasts seized and annexed by Russia. The reality is that Volodymyr Zelensky’s battered army no longer has any chance of a victory.

I have been told the war continues by an official with access to current intelligence because Zelensky insists it must. There is no discussion in his headquarters or the Biden White House of a ceasefire and no interest in talks that could lead to an end to the slaughter. “It’s all lies,” the official said, speaking of the Ukrainian claims of incremental progress in the offensive that has suffered staggering losses while gaining ground in a few scattered areas that the Ukrainian military measures in meters per week.

“Let’s be clear,” the official said. “Putin did a stupid and self-destructive act in starting the war. He thought he had a magical power and that all he wanted would work out.” Russia’s initial attack, the official added, was poorly planned, understaffed, and led to unnecessary losses. “He was lied to by his generals and began the war with no logistics—no way of resupplying his troops.” Many of the offending generals were summarily dismissed.

“Yes,” the official said, “Putin did something stupid, no matter how provoked, by violating the UN charter, and so did we”—President Biden’s decision to wage a proxy war with Russia by funding Zelensky and his military. “And now we have to paint him black, with the help of the media, to justify our mistake.” He was referring to a secret disinformation operation aimed at diminishing Putin, undertaken by the CIA in coordination with elements of British intelligence. The successful operation led significant media outlets in London to report that the Russian president was suffering from various illnesses, including blood disorders and severe cancer. One oft-quoted story had Putin being treated with heavy doses of steroids. Not all were fooled. The Guardian skeptically reported in May of 2022 that the rumors “spanned the gamut: Vladimir Putin is suffering from cancer or Parkinson’s disease, say unconfirmed and unverified reports.” But many major news organizations took the bait. In June 2022, Newsweek splashed what was billed as a major scoop, citing unnamed sources saying that Putin had undergone treatment two months earlier for advanced cancer: “Putin’s grip is strong but no longer absolute. The jockeying inside the Kremlin has never been more intense. . . . everyone sensing that the end is near.”

“There were some early Ukrainian penetrations in the opening days of the June offensive,” the official said, “at or near” the heavily trapped first of Russia’s three formidable concrete barriers of defense, “and the Russians retreated to sucker them in. And they all got killed.” After weeks of high casualties and little progress, along with horrific losses to tanks and armored vehicles, he said, significant elements of the Ukrainian army, without declaring so, virtually canceled the offensive. The two villages that the Ukrainian military recently claimed as captured “are so tiny that they couldn’t fit between two Burma-Shave signs”—referring to billboards that seemed to be on every American highway after World War II.

A byproduct of the Biden administration’s neocon hostility to Russia and China—exemplified by the remarks of Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who has repeatedly stated that he will not currently countenance a ceasefire in Ukraine—has been a significant split in the intelligence community. One casualty is the secret National Intelligence Estimates that have delineated the parameters of American foreign policy for decades. In many cases, some critical offices in the CIA have refused to participate in the NIE process because of profound political disagreement with the administration’s aggressive foreign policy. One recent failure involved a planned NIE that dealt with the outcome of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

I have reported for many weeks on the longstanding disagreement between the CIA and other intelligence community elements on the prognosis of the current war in Ukraine. CIA analysts have consistently been far more skeptical than their Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) counterparts on the prospect of a Ukraine success. The American media has ignored the dispute, but the London-headquartered Economist, whose well-informed reporters do not get bylines, has not. One sign of the internal tension inside the American community emerged in the magazine’s September 9 edition when Trent Maul, the DIA’s director of analysis, gave an extraordinary on-the-record interview to the Economist in which he defended his agency’s optimistic reporting on the Ukraine war and its troubled counteroffensive. As the Economist observed in a headline, it was “A rare interview.” It also passed unnoticed by America’s premier newspapers.

Maul acknowledged that the DIA “got it wrong” in its reporting on the “will to fight” of America’s allies when the US-trained and -financed armies in Iraq and Afghanistan “crumbled almost overnight.” Maul took issue with CIA complaints—though the agency was not cited by name—about the Ukrainian military leadership’s lack of skill and their tactics in the current counteroffensive. He told the Economist that Ukraine’s recent military successes were “significant.” He gave its forces a 40 to 50 percent probability of breaking through Russia’s three-tiered defense lines by the end of this year. He warned, however, the Economist reported, that “limited ammunition and worsening weather will make this ‘very difficult.’”

Zelensky, in an interview with the Economist, published a week later, acknowledged that he had detected—how could he not?—what the magazine quoted him as saying was “a change of mood among some of his partners.” Zelensky also acknowledged that what he called his nation’s “recent difficulties” on the battlefield were seen by some as a reason to begin serious end-of-war negotiations with Russia. He called this “a bad moment” because Russia “sees the same.” But he again made clear that peace talks are not on the table, and he issued a new threat to those leaders in the region whose countries are hosting Ukrainian refugees and who want, as the CIA has reported to Washington, an end to the war. Zelensky warned in the interview, as the Economist wrote: “There is no way of predicting how the millions of Ukrainian refugees in European countries would react to their country being abandoned.” Zelensky said the Ukrainian refugees have “behaved well . . . and are grateful” to those who have sheltered them. Still, it would not be a “good story” for Europe if a Ukrainian defeat “were to drive the people into a corner.” It was nothing less than a threat of internal insurrection.

Zelensky’s message this week to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York offered little new and, the Washington Post reported, he received the obligatory “warm welcome” from those in attendance. But, the Post noted, “he delivered his address to a half-full house, with many delegations declining to appear and listen to what he had to say.” Leaders of some developing nations, the report added, were “frustrated” that the multiple billions being spent without serious accountability by the Biden administration to finance the Ukraine war was diminishing support for their struggles to deal with “a warming world, confronting poverty and ensuring a more secure life for their citizens.”

President Biden, in his earlier speech to the General Assembly, did not deal with Ukraine’s perilous position in the war with Russia but renewed his resounding support for Ukraine and insisted that “Russia alone bears responsibility for this war”—ignoring, as the leaders of many developing nations do not, three decades of NATO expansion to the east after and the Obama administration’s covert involvement in the overthrow of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine in 2014.

The president may be right on the merits, but the rest of the world remembers, as this White House seems not to, that it was America that chose to make war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with little regard for the merits of its justification for doing so.

There was no talk from the president about the need for an immediate ceasefire in a war that Ukraine cannot win and is adding to the pollution that has caused the current climate crisis engulfing the planet. Biden, with the support of Secretary Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan—but diminishing support elsewhere in America—has turned his unrelenting financial and moral support for the Ukraine war into a do-or-die issue for his re-election.

Meanwhile, a relentless Zalensky, in an interview last week with a fawning correspondent of 60 Minutes, once the pinnacle of aggressive American journalism, depicted Putin as another Hitler and falsely insisted that Ukraine had the initiative in its current faltering war with Russia.

The CBS correspondent Scott Pelley asked if he thought “the threat of nuclear war is behind us,” Zelensky responded: “I think he’s going to continue threatening. He is waiting for the United States to become less stable. He thinks that’s going to happen during the US election. He will be looking for instability in Europe and the United States of America. He will use the risk of using nuclear weapons to fuel that. He will keep on threatening.”

The American intelligence official I spoke with spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying has respect for Putin’s intellect but contempt for his decision to go to war with Ukraine and to initiate the death and destruction that war brings. But, as he told me, “The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media must keep the lie going.

“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die anymore, but this doesn’t fit the BS that the Biden White House is authoring.”

GERMANY’S 9/11 MOMENT: THIS ACT OF ECONOMIC TERROR WILL CHANGE THE FUTURE OF EUROPE

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, long held as a symbol of energy security for Europe’s economic powerhouse, became the catalyst for a massive crisis

(L) Satellite photo of methane flowing from the damaged Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines near Denmark and Sweden; (R) Satellite photo of September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York, USA. © ESA/NASA

This article is contributed by ‘Russian Market,’ a project by a financial blogger, Swiss journalist, and political commentator based in Zurich. Follow him on X @runews

[Editor’s note: The brilliant Emanon – no name spelled backward – wrote this article. Generally, we don’t publish articles unless a natural person signs them off. We checked this person’s X (Twitter account). This person, who writes as ‘Russian Market,’ is for real. This article is on target. He or she intuitively understands the subject matter. We are all beneficiaries of this person’s insight.]

HomeBusiness News
20 September 2023

The Nord Stream pipelines have epitomized energy stability for Europe’s largest economy for years. Germany’s industries, households, and economic engine have heavily relied on the uninterrupted flow of Russian gas. However, a sudden and audacious disruption to this vital energy supply overnight sent shockwaves across Germany, leaving it exposed and vulnerable.

The assault on these pipelines last year, allegedly involving American interference, has led to a surge in energy costs within Germany, and this is just the beginning. Industries grapple with unprecedented energy expenses, and consumers witness utility bills skyrocketing, contributing to widespread business closures and significant job losses. In addition to the grim economic outlook, the Ifo Institute has reiterated a projected 0.4% contraction for Germany’s economy in 2023. The prospects of a second-half recovery appear dim due to the country’s limited exposure to the post-pandemic services sector boom. While a 0.2% GDP contraction is anticipated in Q3, a full-blown recession is not yet on the horizon.

Nevertheless, Germany’s economic challenges persist. The nation’s economy remained stubbornly stagnant in the second quarter of 2023, failing to rebound from a previous winter recession, solidifying its position as one of the world’s most fragile significant economies. This Q2 stagnation aligns with earlier forecasts and signals a year-on-year adjusted GDP contraction of 0.2% for the same period. Germany, the primary economic engine of Europe, faces a bleak economic outlook, citing factors such as weakened purchasing power, diminished industrial orders, a slowdown in China’s economy, and the repercussions of aggressive monetary policy tightening. While some hold hope for a year-end resurgence, forecasts indicate that Germany may trail behind major Eurozone economies throughout 2023 due to these persistent challenges.

Germany’s energy-intensive sectors, mainly manufacturing and automotive production, have borne the brunt of the disruption. These industries constitute the bedrock of Germany’s economic might, and any disruption in their operations has far-reaching consequences. Already, some firms are contemplating relocating their production facilities to more energy-stable regions. The parallels with 9/11 are strikingly similar. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, sent shockwaves through the US economy, ushering in a recession and a fundamental reassessment of national security and economic resilience. Similarly, the Nord Stream sabotage has laid bare the vulnerabilities of Germany’s reliance on a single energy source.

This underwater incident has strained Germany’s relations with the United States. The accusation of American involvement has led to tensions between these longstanding allies, while Russia vehemently denies any role in the attack. This diplomatic fallout adds another layer of complexity to an already dire situation.

The broader repercussions of Germany’s deindustrialization and aging workforce are looming, casting a shadow over the European Union’s (EU) economic strength and competitiveness. This dual challenge threatens to erode the EU’s vitality for years.

Germany’s diminishing technological prowess, particularly evident in its struggles within the electric vehicle sector, underscores a broader concern of technological stagnation within the EU compared to the United States. Germany also faces obstacles in navigating its energy transition and digital technology investments. The aging population exacerbates these challenges, creating generational tensions and straining the industrial foundation.

These factors collectively paint a somber economic outlook for Germany and, by extension, the EU. While the US grapples with its challenges, including inflated asset prices and inflation pressures, it is unlikely to decouple from the global economy in 2023. In contrast, the EU already deals with what meets the technical definition of a recession, further underscoring the region’s economic tribulations. As Germany struggles with the aftermath of the Nord Stream attack, it is forced to confront pivotal questions concerning energy security and economic resilience.

Can the country diversify its energy sources to reduce reliance on Russian gas?

Will it invest substantially in renewable energy and infrastructure to mitigate against future disruptions?

And how will it deftly navigate the intricate diplomatic tango dance between the United States and Russia?

One fact remains indisputable: The Nord Stream attack has acted as a clarion call for Germany and the world. It underscores the interdependence of the global energy market and the imperative for nations to prioritize energy security and resilience. Just as 9/11 forever altered America’s approach to national security, this event could reshape Germany’s economic and energy policies for years.

The full repercussions of this attack on Germany’s economy remain to be seen.

But one thing is sure: It has initiated a national dialogue on energy security, economic stability, and the intricate tapestry of international relations. The lessons gleaned from this crisis are likely to reverberate far beyond Germany’s borders as a stark reminder of the fragility of modern economies in an interconnected world.

BIDEN REPEATS ‘UNFORGIVABLE’ REMARK ABOUT PUTIN

The US president has again labeled his Russian counterpart a “dictator,” which the Kremlin had previously denounced

U.S. President Joe Biden. © AP Photo/Alex Brandon

HomeWorld News
19 September 2023

[Editor’s note: The unelected dictator of the ‘free world’] US President Joe Biden has described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “dictator,” claiming that his primary political opponent, former President Donald Trump, would “bow down” to him if elected in 2024. The Democrat also touted himself as a defender of US democracy [Editor’s note: ‘US hypocrisy’ (coined in the Third World].

Speaking to supporters during a fundraiser at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in New York City on Monday, Biden said, “I will not side with dictators like Putin. Maybe Trump and his MAGA friends can bow down, but I won’t.” [Editor’s note: President Biden sides with elected ‘dictators,’ like Zelensky and Netanyahu.]

The incumbent president claimed that “Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy,” whereas he would always “protect and fight” for it. [Editor’s note: I prefer a President with less war experience than one with more.]

This recent comment made by the US head of state about President Putin is not the first instance of him referring to another foreign leader as a dictator.

Last March, Biden told attendees of the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon that the US and its allies were standing together against a “murderous dictator, a pure thug waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.” A day prior, the US president said he considered Putin, a “war criminal.”

Commenting on Biden’s remarks at the time, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that Moscow deemed “unacceptable and unforgivable such rhetoric from a head of state whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people [Editor’s note: millions of people] around the world.” He noted that the US leader had resorted to “personal insults,” a level that President Putin, a “thoughtful and wise leader,” would never stoop to.

Last month, several US media outlets also quoted President Biden alleging that China is run by “bad folks.” In June, he described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator,” which Beijing characterized as a “political provocation.”

WEST IS A CRUMBLING EMPIRE – JACKSON HINKLE

There is no hope of stifling the success of a multipolar world, the US journalist told RT.

American Political Analyst Jackson Hinkle, host of "The Dive with Jackson Hinkle."

Click here to view the video (32 minutes).

HomeWorld News
20 September 2023

History will not look fondly upon the “Nazis and the liberals” who are pushing progressive ideology, such as transgenderism, onto children, political analyst Jackson Hinkle told RT in an interview on Tuesday.

The host of ‘The Dive with Jackson Hinkle’ stressed that the US and Western Europe are beginning to lose their global influence in an “ever-changing multipolar world” and are becoming a “hollow skeleton of power” and a “crumbling empire.”

               “Empires are most dangerous when they’re rising or falling, and right now, that’s the case for the United States and the West,” Hinkle said, noting that apart from a nuclear war, there is little Washington could do to stop the development of countries like China and Russia.

               “There is no hope of stifling the success of the whole world,” he said.

Hinkle also commented on the crisis in Ukraine, including the recent reports about a missile attack on an outdoor market in the city of Konstantinovka. The analyst stated that Western media articles have decided to blame the incident on Kyiv, contrary to their usual reporting, which could indicate that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s time in office could be limited as critical voices begin to break through.

“Any US asset abroad eventually meets its demise,” Hinkle said, noting the examples of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. “Zelensky may, or may not, be close to meeting that cruel end,” he continued, pointing to the incredible amount of Ukrainian lives lost in the “suicide mission” that is Kyiv’s attempts to battle Russia’s forces. Hinkle stated that thousands of people should already be flooding the streets of Ukraine, protesting against the Kyiv government. Still, due to fear of being “imprisoned, or worse,” these protests aren’t happening.

As for his prognosis about the end of the conflict, Hinkle said he hopes Russia eventually succeeds in “liberating Ukraine from the Nazis.” He added that he believes Poland is likely to move into western Ukraine with the consent of Washington, which, along with London, wants to turn Europe into a new power.

               “They want Poland to rise by joining with Ukraine. They want to build up the Nordic states on the border with Russia. And they want to hurt Germany, Italy, and France,” Hinkle said, noting that the US is already pushing policies to stifle growth in those three countries and blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, causing European economies to crash.

TIME TO TALK: JEFFREY SACHS CALLS UPON EU LEADERS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST FOOLISH US WAR POLICIES

Click here to view the video (32 minutes, 18 seconds).

Jakob de Jonge interviews Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor, author, educator, and global leader in sustainable development.

Host: Jakob de Jonge
The Hague Peace Projects
15 September 2023

Follow along using the transcript.
Show Transcript

Visit StopTheWar.nu An initiative by The Hague Peace Projects.

UN MUST ADAPT TO NEW WORLD

The globe is undergoing dramatic changes, and the organization must adjust.

FILE PHOTO. A view of the UN Security Council chamber. © Getty Images / Spencer Platt

Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen
21 September 2023

The existing system of international law is floundering while an array of conflicts plagues the modern world, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. In an interview with RT Arabic on Wednesday, he called upon the UN to adapt to a changing world.

               “It is evident that the world is currently undergoing dramatic tectonic changes. Changes are underway. This requires a certain adaptation on the part of the UN, first of all, of its main body – the Security Council,” Peskov said.

However, Peskov ruled out the possibility of a new international organization to replace the UN, stating that the global body’s tools should be “developed and honed” instead.

               “It is too early to talk about this yet. Thus far, the main body is the UN. We have no other. And in the current situation, when the whole world is riddled with conflicts, when international law is trampled upon, and economic relations, the system of Bretton Woods relations are de facto collapsing, I don’t think we can say that we will be able to create some other system. This is simply impossible,” Peskov explained.

The Security Council currently has 15 members, ten of which serve two-year terms and cannot veto resolutions. Only five permanent members – the US, UK, China, France, and Russia – hold such power. Russia has advocated a more diverse Security Council for years, arguing that the body can be democratized only through increasing the representation of African, Asian, and Southern American states.

Recently, multiple world leaders and top officials have called for a reform of the UN Security Council, criticizing the institution as dysfunctional and lacking a fair representation of leading nations of the world. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also acknowledged the issues confronting the council who has said a reform is long overdue better to reflect the “realities of today’s world.”

________________________

Related Articles Recently Posted on www.buildingthebridgefoundation.com:

Our Friday News Analysis | 'What the World Reads Now!,' 15 September 2023.

Our Wednesday News Analysis | 'One federation for two peoples,' 20 September 2023.

The Evangelical Pope| 'Live, Let Live,' 18 September 2023.

_________________________

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of the Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague.