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Iran and the international relations system in the age of Trump

May 17,2018 - Last updated at May 17,2018

Historic perspective indicates that the present structure and system of international relations originated in the Anglo-American Alliance quietly and tacitly formed in l891, then designed to counter and curb the ambitions of Otto Von Bismarck, then chancellor of Germany, to develop a stronger Navy than that of Great Britain. This alliance survived the events of the entire 20th century, including WWI, WWII, the Korean, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Iraq and other Middle Eastern and world conflicts. It was behind the defeat of Fascism, Nazism and Communism, and the containment and frustration of often honourable, honest liberation movements around the world. It has been versatile in the instruments it used to achieve its goals ranging from military to political and economic means; the League of Nations and the United Nations. The US alone has around 800 military bases around the globe, while the Bretton Woods system, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank keep tight control on the world’s socio-economic life, and the United Nations remains a ready-made platform for Western policies.

Behind this elaborate and versatile structure, the lofty ideals of democracy and human rights remain attractive to all people yearning for a measure of freedom, ideals that camouflaged the real motive of maintaining Anglo-American Western privilege and hegemony over the globe.

Though no sane person can contest the magnificent contributions of Western civilisation to humanity in the spiritual as well as the material dimensions of life, early on in its development, it displayed a strong strain of superiority towards other civilisations, often ranging from hidden to extreme displays of racial superiority: White Man’s Burden; la Mission Civilisation and American Exceptionalism, eventually giving birth to irredentist hate ideologies of Apartheid, Fascism, Nazism and Zionism.

The ancient Greeks were aware of the inherent flaws in the democratic system they advocated and its tendency to degenerate into what Alexis De Toqueville referred to as “mass tyranny” in the name of democracy. Socrates and Plato, in his book, The Republic, attempted to establish an elaborate structure that might help in checking the power of demagoguery and the influence of wealth, and settled on the idea that the best system is that which is “governed by Wise Men”, otherwise, it would be exploited and distorted even in established nations. Such was the case with Germany and Italy, which so richly contributed to civilisation in letters, science and technology or as with the cult of Zionism that has not only succeeded in destroying the great and ancient Judaic tradition, but has penetrated and became greatly influential in distorting much of western culture, ideals and society in modern times.

Behind the election of President Donald Trump lies the cult formed between the Biblical mythology of the exodus through Sinai and evangelical extremist hallucinations of American millennialists keen on speeding up the Second Coming of Christ and the Battle of Armageddon. In his decision to scrap the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, only the extremist Zionist Council of Netanyahu, not that of his major European allies; France, Germany, Britain and others, was to be heard and followed. This decision comes on the heels of his earlier decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and his unilateral decision to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. These decisions not only isolate the US from its traditional allies, more importantly, they have shaken the international system to its roots.

Established in ancient times, the international system was built on a measure of trust in treaties, and pacts, and contracts made between states. The system was strengthened and elaborated on by adding the international dimension of multilateralism, first sanctioned by the League of Nations and, since the end of WWII, through the United Nations. When a major power reneges and undermines the system, it constitutes a major breach in the whole edifice of relations between states in all their dimensions; cultural, economic, political and military.

Now, every leader of every state, including Kim Jong-un of North Korea, may question the credibility and reliability of the entire system; for the state that broke the pattern was a major international actor and not a marginal or rogue state.

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