PIERCING THE NEW CURTAIN FALLING ACROSS THE WORLD

Cold War strategies like economic pressure, military deterrence & tougher competition may be back in play as Trump revises the geopolitical playbook. The Palestinian issue needs fresh ideas

- LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN (RETD)

The speed at which US President Donald Trump has worked in the last 30 days has left even his strongest critics numbed in wonder. The most meaningful message that appears to have been conveyed is the notion of 'no wars'. It resonates with the words of our own Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Russian president on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's Tashkent summit, where he stated, "I know that today's era is not an era of war."

Trump's worldview of strategic interests does not follow the traditional US perception of attempting to police the entire planet to secure it against several threats, many of which could be classified as imaginary. At the end of the second World War, the US confronted the tide of communism. It invested heavily in the defense of Europe through the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO, which it majorly funded, resourced and manned. It fought in Korea and Vietnam to prevent the march of 'red ideology' by acting as a bulwark, with both hard and soft power.

After the victory in the Cold War, many argued against persisting with NATO. Yet, confidence wasn't as high as today and none could predict which way the former Warsaw Pact countries would go. NATO, under US stewardship, wanted to consolidate by absorbing maximum East European nations, and Russia was hardly in a state to protest. Most analysts agree that NATO perhaps went too far in attempting to secure its interests.

It was tolerable for a while. Romania, Bulgaria and Poland joining NATO was acceptable to Russia, but Ukraine was not—and a geography class could tell you why. The Black Sea region was the bone of contention. Russia would lose Sevastopol where its Black Sea fleet rested, and many of ethnically Russian-majority areas in the Donbas area.