Russia-Ukraine War: The slipping of the civilisational mask, writes Harini Calamur

Just a shade over 2 weeks ago, Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces invaded Ukraine, and the world as we know it changed. Still reeling from the changes wrought by the pandemic, a weary population of the world began facing the prospect of extended conflict and economic winter – as the European Union and NATO have gotten into a ‘who will blink first’ game with Putin. In this new version of the cold war, the war has moved on to armies on the border frozen in a stand-off. In this war, all the tools of persuasion – from propaganda to economic sanctions have been brought into play.

While no one has channelised their inner George Bush to explicitly declare “Either you are with us, or you are with them” – the message is clear. This is war that is at the heart of a civilisational battle – that is mandated by western values. The Wall Street Journal went so far as to ask if Russia was turning to its Asian past – depicting Putin as Genghis Khan - forgetting that in the last 1000 years much of the genocide, pillage and looting has been carried out by western powers seeking imperial status. The problem is not war. The problem is with war that the west has not declared or certified as a ‘just war’. A war

The narrative is simple. Here is a war on a civilised nation (i.e., with European /White values) and if it is not important enough for your nation, then you are not civilised. CBS senior foreign correspondent, Charlie D’Agata caused a furore for saying, “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen,”. If this was him choosing his words carefully, one shudders to imagine what would be said if he had spoken his mind. But D’Agata wasn’t the only one. There was an outpouring of similar angst from journalists across the western world – this mostly white, highly privileged commentators on world affairs, pontificated that war is wrong, not because it was wrong, but because they seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European Country. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone". Prince William, the future King of Great Britain, is reported to have said that while war is normal in Asia and Africa, it is alien to Europe for his generation. I suppose that Muslims being massacred in Bosnia does not count as war for some.

The non-Western world has been waiting and watching. This is the first time since most of us threw away the yoke of colonialism that there seems to be a large-scale disruption in the world order, with its origins in Europe. While everyone agrees that war is terrible, and Russia shouldn’t have invaded Ukraine, the level of United Nations driven condemnation has been muted. The overall reaction seems to be ‘Our wars, our conflicts, our dead people, our issues seem not worthy of your action or support. And, yet we are expected to stand with you on issues that you feel strongly about. How does this work?’ When a BBC correspondent put out a guide to how to use Molotov cocktails effectively to disarm Russian armour, the common refrain was would you put out such information to help the Palestinians in the Occupied territories?

And finally, there is the entire area of economic sanctions. As MNC’s that originate in the West, join the war on Russia, in the economic and cyber spheres, the rest of us are watching. The first to pull out were the biggest names in Capitalism – Coca Cola, McDonalds, Levi’s, Uni Lever, Prada, Ikea, Starbucks, Netflix. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have shut cloud services, subscription services, and payment services in Russia. With more companies and services going on the cloud – it would seem likely that many nations will see this as an issue of national security – and see how best they can develop systems that don’t cut their citizens off. As Russia gets disconnected from SWIFT, nations wonder – could our nation’s economic security be imperilled by our reliance on a payments system controlled by others.

Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine. But rather than solving the problem there has been a hardening of stance, by the west. This overreaction has not just made it difficult for the Russians to withdraw without it seeming like an abject surrender, but also got non western nations to think again about a global economic system that is skewed in favour of the west.

In the years since the second world war, we have been told trade is good. We have been told that opening of our markets will let us grow faster. And that promise has been delivered many times over. Our collective lives have improved because of freer trade. Our world is more connected because of our shared memories of brands. We know more about each other because of global social media platforms. But what we are getting to see now is the other side of being dependent on others for key services. As the western mask slips, and we see what ‘civilisation’ really means – many non-western nations are going to take a serious look at their overreliance on external sources. And take suitable steps for being self-reliant.

(The writer works at the intersection of digital content, technology, and audiences. She is a writer, columnist, visiting faculty and filmmaker)

Published on: Monday, March 14, 2022, 08:59 AM IST