In Russia’s defense, they claim their interest in Ukraine is very much mirrored by The Monroe Doctrine which operates in the US – a country that prides itself as a democracy but reserves the right to defend its interests in the western hemisphere. Politicians in Russia claim that it is hypocritical for the US and the EU to criticize their actions in Ukraine.
The Geopolitical lessons for Africa
The crisis in the Ukraine is a battle for resources and influence. Vladimir Putin’s government sees a surgical geopolitical excision of Ukraine from Russia as a first step of the US and the EU towards Moscow. It would allow the US and EU a chance to orchestrate a possible change of government in Russia no matter how violent.
Such an attempt, if it were successful would allow western nations access to Russia’s huge reserves of natural resources – oil and gas. Control of these natural resources is a key axiom to developing and projecting economic and military power.
Africa, which has since the 1800s become a preserve of the West’s so far odious imperialism, has underpinned the prosperity and economic power of the West. The Chinese engagement with Africa is already causing alarm in the West.
The loss of strategic resources in Africa spells at least an economic decline for the West, and perhaps the loss of military might. Hence the US and the EU’s search for new resources under the guise of the promotion of democracy.
Three key Lessons
The first lesson is that democracy is not a defense against the illegitimate seizure of power by western backed politicians when western interests are threatened. This calls into debate the question of democracy as expatiated by the West.
This calls for a fundamental reevaluation of what democracy means in a country. The fundamental levers of state power existing outside the democratic process like the military and paramilitary organizations have to be created or strengthened to defend the state against foreign enemies who may be intent on destroying the nation state for its resources.
A democratic dispensation alone, without sufficient protection from a powerful independent military, is not enough to protect the sovereignty of the state.
The second lesson is an implication of the first. Western institutions like the G8, which excludes China the second largest economy in the world, must become irrelevant in the solution of the equation to making the world a more peaceful place and a better world economically.
Democracy without economic independence is a sham – it cannot and should not be tolerated in Africa.
The whole international political architecture needs no redrawing however. But Diversity In Economic Blocks (DEBs) is essential in maintaining a balance of power in the world and ensuring that democratic institutions are forged in all member states.
The African Union (AU) needs to harness the economic might of its African States to back democratic efforts in these countries with substantial and constructive economic independence. This way the Union can exert a true traditional African influence on the continent and in the world.
The track record of the WTO should only qualify it as irrelevant as far as African interests are concerned. The shift to bringing more balance in economic power around the globe has seen Asia as a major contributor. Rather than see it as a threat, Africa and the West must embrace it. This should open up new avenues for trade for Africa.
This means that the economic partnership agreements (EPA) that the West presented, in this case by the EU, to regional blocks in Africa must be re-examined if not scrapped. These programs spell economic capitulation to western economic and military hegemony. African tradition is intrinsically inimical to that expansionist ideology.
As was demonstrated by the government of Mr. Yanukovich in the Ukraine in rejecting the economic suicide that would have resulted if they had signed the Association Agreement with the EU, Africa must do the same.
The third lesson is that, the struggle for the resurgence of a new Africa may result in a similar interest from the US and the EU. As is in the Ukraine case, a resurgent Russia regaining her historical economic and cultural space collides with western attempts to undermine her.
In particular, a resurgent Africa will clash with the French and other western interests as she attempts to regain her economic independence and her cultural space in the African heartland. The fact that many African countries are democratic will not prevent the West as in the case of the Ukraine to undermine those governments in an effort to protect its own interests.
What should Africa do?
We propose that the English speaking Southern, Eastern and Western Africa collectively known as SEWA should pursue economic and industrial integration to develop a powerful industrial and economic base in preparation for constructive competition with existing powerful economic blocks over francophone Africa.
Military independence from the West – the US and the EU – should be sort, acquired and developed to give Africa a natural autonomy over its trading routes on the continent.
With that, in addition to a more constructive strategic alliance with the West, African must forge mutual trade relations with Russia, China and Brazil. This will create a Diversity of Economic trading Blocks (DEBs) in the world with more to gain collectively for the betterment and advancement of the world.
Anglophone SEWA has about 782 million people with a combined GDP of more than 800 billion dollars and should be more than capable of developing an independent trading unit.
A coordinated effort in industrialization could triple or quadruple that GDP based on a firm industrial base of heavy, light industry and the information technology industry. Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe should form the A5 and serve as the nucleus of the Anglophone SEWA group to drive the industrialization of the African heartland.
Having achieved that, SEWA could turn its geopolitical task to the incorporation of Francophone Africa. This will no doubt attract attention from the French, who are invariably plundering the wealth of these African states.
