Superpower

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday Chinese President Xi Jinping's two-day state visit to Serbia would be historic and a great honour to the country.

The dominant Western narrative today has the West fighting a battle against a dark world that represents authoritarianism and challenges the liberal post-war political world. It is summed up in the phrase "the West and the rest."

They're not leaders for life — not technically, at least. But in political reality, the powerful tenures of China's Xi Jinping and, as of this week, Russia's Vladimir Putin are looking as if they will extend much deeper into the 21st century — even as the two superpowers whose destinies they steer gather more clout with each passing year.

The attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, taught Americans and the world in the most dramatic way that the only superpower was part of the world, that it did not stand apart, that it was just as vulnerable to attack from an outside enemy as any other country.

It took a pandemic and an American president with no respect for the rules and no understanding of the fragility of international relations for all hell to break loose, with China at the epicenter. One had to be historically ignorant or in complete denial to fail to see that China's growing strength economically as well as strategically would bring about geopolitical change.

As a European leader once remarked, Europe should be a superpower, not a superstate. Faced with an increasingly powerful and authoritarian China, global warming, the potentially existential challenge of AI, not to mention an aggressive Russia, chaotic Middle East and Trumpian United States, this argument is more compelling than ever. In a world of giants, you need to be a giant yourself.

Welcome to a new world, a world shared between the rising superpower of China and the established superpower of the United States, as the coronavirus crisis accelerates competition and intensifies tension in a battle that has been simmering for some time.

With his decision to suspend US funding to the World Health Organisation US President Donald Trump has surpassed all limits of social callousness, even his own,  and quite rightly has triggered a global chorus of strong criticism.

The surge in Middle East tensions, combined with a dynamic Russian presence and growing Turkish aggression, provides a unique opportunity for the European Union to show that it will not allow itself to be blown about like a feather on the winds of others' actions.

Undoubtedly the global political system has entered a period of instability and we can see that and the resulting complications on a daily basis.

The actions of the US President have undermined the credibility of the once sole superpower.

Δείτε ακόμη: Politico - Το «μισό» θαύμα της Ελλάδας