![]() He did this progressively and with the pragmatism that characterized his leadership. Deng Xiaoping consolidated power and was able to launch economic reforms. The second major change of 1979 occurred in China. Finally, in Syria starting in 2011 with the Sunni revolt, which was bloodily quashed by Bashar Al-Assad with the support of Iran and Russia. Then, in Iraq when the United States launched its invasion in 2003. We quickly saw the consequences of this, first in Lebanon with the rise of Hezbollah as a decisive political and military actor within the local and regional scene. But Khomeini saw himself also as the protector of Shiite Muslims wherever they may be, including in Sunni Arab countries. Until then, states had been competing for regional leadership according to the traditional rules of inter-state rivalry. But most importantly, Imam Khomeini’s accession to power changed the situation throughout the entire region. That day, the United States lost its best ally in the Middle East. The first event occurred on Februin Iran with the fall of the Shah. Why? Because during this year, three very different events literally provoked chain reactions whose echoes we still hear today on a global scale. So the first question we must ask ourselves is: when did history restart? Everyone may have their own opinion on this subject. And since then, it seems to me that every ten to twelve years, our world changes. The Cold War imposed 35 years of rivalry, but also of bipolar stability. In the aftermath of World War II, the US presidents succeeded at what their predecessor Woodrow Wilson had attempted with mixed success in 1919: endowing the world with global international institutions based on the values invented in Europe in particular, the UN, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, all three established in the United States. Western dominance continued with the eighteenth century, which can arguably be described as the century of France then the nineteenth, which was undoubtedly that of the United Kingdom and finally, the twentieth century, when the United States took the baton from Europe to affirm our Western values. Without answering this question, I will confine myself to a brief reminder: where do we come from? Western dominance began in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the centuries of the great discoveries of Spain and Portugal. There is another question that I will not discuss today, but which has always fascinated me: how do we explain that the people of this small cape of the Asian continent that is Europe have been able to impose their dominance – military, economic, intellectual, and legal – on the whole world for so long? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |