February 28, 2008 (the date of publication in Russian)
Alexander Rublev
RECOGNITION OF KOSOVO AND THE "UN-2" PROJECT
Washington would enjoy pasturing 120 Upper Volta-type democracies
In his recent speech on NATO priorities, Senator John McCain, the leading Republican Party candidate for US Presidency, complained that the member states of NATO and the European Union comprise not more than "one quarter of the 120 democracies existing in the world". Those "stray" democracies are now supposed to be unified under the auspices of a new alliance of states, alternative to the United Nations, under the tentative title of the Global League of Democracies.
Dreaming of the Global League, Mr. McCain does not demand UN's dismantlement. The number of 120 is not an accidental coincidence with the number of states necessary for endorsing a new member of the UN Security Council. Its members, except the United States, Great Britain, France, China and Russia, are elected on the principle of rotation.
There are enough grounds to admit that the international debates on Kosovo independence may serve a perfect playground for Washington's political experiment, involving foundation of an "alternative UN" for the very purpose of overtaking the control stake of the existing United Nations.
Until today, the United States never succeeded in organizing "120 democracies" along its policy line. For instance, the US intervention in Iraq gained support of not more than 45 states, including nations of Oceania, this list eventually contracting to 28.
Moreover, the United States failed to promote their protégé Guatemala for temporary UNSC membership from Latin America. Instead, 77 countries of 122 preferred to vote for Venezuela, headed by rabid Yankee-hater Hugo Chavez.
However, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci hopes to achieve recognition from one hundred nations. This supposed reserve, with exception for Spain, Romania and Slovakia which have serious concerns of domestic secessionism, constitute the resource that US strategists are going to rely upon.
Some of East European states, despite common problems with Romania, are behaving today like rabbits, hypnotized by a constrictor. In particular, the leadership of Bulgaria, forgetting about the 500-year background of Ottoman oppression, has officially expressed repentance for infringement of rights of the Turkish minority during the Communist rule.
One bark from Washington was thus sufficient for Bulgaria to abandon the ranks of protectors of Serbia's territorial integrity and to join the club of Kosovo's friends.
The proposed Global League of Democracies is probably going to be comprised of both European (mostly NATO member) countries, traditional US allies in Asia like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea, US-oriented ASEAN member nations like the Philippines and Thailand, the Washington-loyal minority of Latin America including Peru and Colombia, along with a number of former British and French colonies in Africa and dwarf countries of Polynesia and Micronesia.
It is noteworthy that five years ago, in 2003, the French-influenced Guinea and Cameroun refused to support the resolution justifying US intervention in Iraq. However, Washington and Paris share the approach towards Kosovo, while smaller countries naturally sympathize with the cause of others' strife for sovereignty. Burkina Faso (former Upper Volta), one of the poorest nations of Africa, has eagerly recognized Kosovo independence.
The desperate country has been traditionally used as a symbol of poverty and backwardness. In 1980s, Cold War luminaries mockingly described the USSR, with its problems of shortage of consumer goods at that time, as "Upper Volta with missiles". Today, the same parallel may be used for the chicken-livered allies of Washington in the "alternative UN" (or "planetary NATO"?) that give up their right for expressing their own view, descending to miserable geopolitical impotency.
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