NATO a tool to advance U.S. world-domination ambitions

By: Azhar Azam

For quite a few years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been trying to resuscitate its withering relevance. In the immediate aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the U.S. and its allies used the spat to strong-arm other countries to follow their lead. The military grouping's 2022 Strategic Concept now urges them to bolster the trans-Atlantic alliance and help it re-strengthen America's global influence.

It does so by intending to build cross-regional partnerships as a means to bring peace and stability across the world with a key purpose of the bloc's collective defense in a "contested and unpredictable world" as well as dragging itself into other areas such as technological innovation, climate change, good governance and terrorism that necessitate an inclusive international engagement and cooperation.

Choreographed and orchestrated by the U.S., the framework is indeed a blueprint of America's aspiration of world domination. It calls the Western Balkans and the Black Sea as regions of "strategic importance" and wants to work with partners including in the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel to push the alliance's own strategic interests.

Across the Balkan Peninsula, it hauls in the European Union (EU) to counter alleged cyber and hybrid threats and address "systemic challenges" from China. The strategy seeks to undermine peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific by linking the region with Euro-Atlantic security to advance the U.S.' disruptive objectives.

The strategic plan is an empty-worded declaration of international peace and security for it doesn't lay out any solid program for global stability. Just branding Russia as "the most significant and direct threat" to NATO member countries' security, avoiding confrontation or keeping open channels of communication to manage and mitigate risks cannot guarantee a peaceful and stable Euro-Atlantic area.

In order to prevent escalation, NATO could have instantly taken some de-escalatory measures in Eastern Europe to pave the way for a constructive peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. Yet, the U.S. found an opportunity to exploit the spiraling tensions to its advantage. The alliance drove itself into the conflict at the behest of its dominant partner.

Washington isn't interested in pulling the plug on the war. Although Russia has no territorial disputes with two Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden, the U.S. strongly backed their entry into NATO. The move, at a time when the European leaders were striving for peace, could aggravate the peace situation and cap slim chances of ending the Moscow-Kyiv conflict.

NATO's eastward enlargement is loose cannon for regional stability as the accession of Sweden and Finland, the latter of which shares roughly 800-mile border with Russia, will dramatically increase the risk of future conflict. Meanwhile, its decision to put over 300,000 troops at "high readiness," as announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on June 27, will be an inexorable economic burden on the member states amid rising inflation and lack of public support.

The Western media is hyping up war sentiments too. A video of how to manufacture incendiary improvised weapons was aired on mainstream media. Meta platforms allowed Facebook and Instagram to call for violence against Russians. The U.S. state governors requested the removal of Russian products. Russian artists and athletes were banned from performing and participating in sports events.

A Democrat Representative even suggested "kicking every Russian student out of the United States." European doctors refused to treat Russian and Belarusian citizens in violation of the Article 15 of the Geneva Convention to treat all patients equally. This discrimination exposed Western hypocrisy and makes innocent Russians pay the price for what is beyond their control.

During the NATO summit held a week ago, U.S. President Joe Biden boasted NATO was "more united than ever." Yet, behind the facade of unanimity, historical grievances in the Balkans expose fissures in the alliance's unity. Some countries in the region do not swear allegiance to the so-called Euro-Atlantic values and are pursuing their own interests. The internal rifts between NATO Balkan states coupled with the frustration and disappointment over the lack of progress on their accession to the EU are some of the key challenges to the alliance's vision of rebooting its flagging significance and the success of its new military doctrine.

The U.S. wants to see Russia weakened from the Ukrainian conflict but is worried about economic shocks of the protracted conflict, while the peace camp of some leading EU states such as Germany, France and Italy have been advocating for a ceasefire and diplomatic solution between Moscow and Kyiv. Though these differences are partly dwarfed by NATO's newfangled unity and solidarity, they could come back more intensely over the longstanding "burden-sharing" row once the rush of blood fades away.

Europe is beginning to feel the pinch of war. According to Eurostat, inflation in the euro area has shot up from 2 percent last year to 8.1 percent in May 2022. Germany last month recorded its first ever trade deficit of 1 billion euro since 1991.

The world, experiencing unprecedented economic and security crises, lacks the resilience to withstand NATO's cold war posture to prop up U.S. domination. Their people almost surely will dismiss this anti-peace approach. To meet its promise of a "more peaceful world," NATO and developed states should cease undermining global development projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative and working as a tool to advance American hegemonic ambitions. Instead, they must step up efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict through peace negotiations.

*This is my opinion piece that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":

Africa needs growth-focused, pacifist approach

By: Azhar Azam

China's engagement in Africa is purely economic. It has been transforming the continent through trade, investment and infrastructure development. The method of "doing the work" rather than "saying the things" or lecturing fetches broad recognition for Beijing as a positively influential and constructive foreign actor in the region.

Economic development is the foremost objective of Africa. Yet the reckless politicization, weaponization and marginalization of normal international economic and trading activities by the US and its efforts to build an ideology-driven unilateral system threaten the region's ambition. It could be one of the reasons for the US' "considerably weaker positive impact" on the continent.

Beijing doesn't have the negative historical legacy such as the colonization of the continent and transatlantic slave trade – the largest forced migration in history that killed 2 million Africans between 1500 and 1800 and made many Western countries extremely wealthy by exploiting the slave labor. Unlike the US criticism of African states, China avoids interference in Africa's internal affairs.

Pursuing a pragmatic approach, China invests and helps develop Africa's infrastructure and creates employment. It also provides cheap products, important loans and economic support, a big market for exporting goods and training and skill development to African workers. Even more, Beijing is calling on all African countries to unite strongly under frameworks such as BRICS, G77 and the Non-Aligned Movement to protect the interests of developing nations and solidify the bilateral relationship.

"Trade, not aid" is what Africa has long wanted to emerge as an important international economic power. Supporting the African vision, China in 2021 imported about $106 billion of goods from the continent, up 43.7 percent year-on-year. It's also believed to be the largest investor in Africa this year. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, among other factors, attributed Africa's improved economic performance with China's effort to facilitate further African imports. To push African exports, Beijing has also adopted a zero-tariff policy for 97 percent of goods from Africa's least-developed countries.

There is a lurid narrative being built by the US administration and media outlets that China's firms tend to hire Chinese expats and employ very few local Africans. A 4-year fieldwork-intensive research by the SOAS, University of London on employment patterns and outcomes in the infrastructure construction and manufacturing sectors in 2019 challenged this widespread Western perception.

The study found not only were "workforce localization rates" substantially higher than usually reported — for instance, 90 percent for all workers and 100 percent for low-skilled workers in Ethiopia — the lowest-paid unskilled workers received wages beyond the "extreme and moderate international poverty lines" in addition to a majority of all workers earning well above the sector's minimum wage.

Infrastructure development is Africa's pressing priority. China has undertaken more than 60 percent of Africa's infrastructure construction. Other than promoting the "realization of commodity democracy and shopping freedom," the Belt and Road Initiative is building African infrastructure at a much faster pace, roughly one-third of the time others need. A quick implementation of the projects would improve Africans' living conditions and Africa's global competitiveness by boosting trade and generating employment along with ensuring sustainable development.

An average Chinese project is estimated to have raised Africa's growth by 0.41-1.49 percent after two years. The Economist says although China is a big lender in Africa, it rarely accounts for most African countries' debt. Despite claims China could seize borrowers' assets, the China Africa Research Institute of Johns Hopkins University didn't find any proof Beijing was attempting to take advantage of "debt distressed" countries through "asset seizures."

China accords greater emphasis on food security. With just 9 percent of the world's arable land, Beijing is feeding one-fifth of the global population, which itself is a landmark achievement. It also alleviates pressure on the international food supply. Still, Beijing has sent the most technical experts to developing countries including ones in Africa, donated the largest funds and provided emergency food assistance to several nations.

Countries accusing Beijing for hoarding grain should stop blaming China and take immediate measures to reduce food loss in the developed world, where the amount of food waste is almost as much as the food produced in sub-Saharan Africa. In the US alone, about 103 million tons of food worth $161 billion was wasted in 2018, according to the country's Agriculture Department.

For decades, China has been playing a pivotal role to mitigate poverty and narrow inequality in Africa through investment and infrastructure projects. Beijing is willing to help Africa bring peace and stability in the region. As the growth-focused and pacifist approach meets Africa's requirements, the China-Africa relationship has weathered many storms in the past and it will be the building block for a much stronger bilateral cooperation in the future.

*This is my opinion piece that originally appeared in "China Daily":