The current crisis in Ukraine is a prime illustration of the devastating outcomes that might emerge from implementing neoliberal policies. When a government adopts neoliberalism as its economic policy, it creates a favourable climate in which multinational firms and foreign financial institutions can establish operations and gain influence in the economy. In this post, I will use the present crisis in Ukraine to argue that so-called Western liberalism is often a delusion that contributes to a rise in social disparity and political discontent. Libertarianism's hidden secrets and true philosophy are being disclosed in the wake of numerous disasters around the world, revealing its hallmarks of hypocrisy, anarchy, and dreadful double standards.
Protesters in Kyiv's Maidan Square and the streets unleashed brutal killings and violence in the name of the movement, toppling a democratically elected government in an undemocratic way with the direct support of liberal Westerners, including the United States, who backed the protesters' cause against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The Western world's hubris throughout the Syrian crisis was shocking. The alliance that demanded the removal of Bashar al-Assad and tried so hard to bring down the regime ultimately succeeded only in making things more chaotic. Even with Russia's last-ditch effort, Syria has descended into chaos, joining Iraq and Libya. More so than in other cases, the West is eager to wave the Ukrainian flag against Russia and help the Ukrainian government achieve its goals. One possible explanation is that the Western world places greater strategic emphasis on Ukraine than Syria. As a result of Western involvement in Ukraine, trust between Russia and the West has been severely damaged, increasing the likelihood of a resurgence of the Cold War.
The imposition of one's ideas and philosophies on others while neglecting the relevance of the significant differences in national culture, civilisation, and history is the primary cause of the failure and calamity that the liberal concept of universal values has caused. Ukraine is today poised on the precipice of a bloody civil war as a direct consequence of the efforts of the United States and the European Union to impose their version of democracy on that country. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Western academics and political leaders believe that the Russian Federation has been fighting an uphill battle to reassume its hegemonic position over the nations that were formerly a part of the Soviet Union. This is inaccurate; Russia is keener to construct a multilateral world based on fairness and a level playing field while also being very mindful of its regional security. This is even though Russia is very conscious of its regional security.
As a consequence of this, there have been numerous conflicts in the region. The liberal policies of the European Union are directly to blame for the precarious position in Ukraine. In November 2013, the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, made headlines when he said he would not sign an association agreement with the European Union to prioritise cultivating friendly relations with Russia. This choice was the impetus for the crisis that we are currently facing. The move infuriated many Ukrainians, who saw the transaction as evidence that President Yanukovych prioritised Russia's interests over those of his nation. The subsequent widespread demonstrations eventually resulted in the ousting of Yanukovych in February 2014 and the installation of a new government that is friendly to the interests of the West. The entire event was a plot to topple the government that the West supported, planned in an undemocratic manner, and was the outcome of high-level neo-liberalism in the West.
The annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014 and the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine combined with profound divisions within Ukrainian society. This was coupled with an ambiguous attitude of the country's new leadership toward peace, which was aligned with Western interests. Because Russia participates in Ukraine, many people are rethinking the future of Europe and the role that the United States plays in the globe. The current situation in Ukraine exemplifies not only the inadequacies of Western liberalism but also the risks associated with residing in a unipolar world. The United States of America and its European allies have responded to the crisis in Ukraine with a mix of economic sanctions and diplomatic measures. From the very beginning, many people had significant doubts and questions regarding the general efficacy of the Western world. The effectiveness of sanctions has been called into question, and many fears diplomatic attempts will also be unsuccessful because of a lack of goodwill. In this post, I will make an effort to underline that western liberalism has been an utter failure in Ukraine and that the current crisis demonstrates that such liberalism cannot be imposed by force; instead, such an approach is more likely to fail. I intend to suggest that the current international system should be replaced with a new one.
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the liberalism of the West has spread like a virus over the rest of the world. Instead of bringing about peace and stability, the ideology of liberalism is responsible for the upheaval and anarchy that have occurred in countries undergoing significant changes. Even as the United Kingdom declared that it would be voting to leave the European Union, European countries were already feeling the acute effects of the crisis in liberalism. Over the past three decades, I have witnessed the recurrence of this crisis in many countries around the world. Some examples include the election of populist governments in many European countries, the Catalan rebellion in Spain, and the rejection of liberalism in many countries, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Other examples include the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election in 2016, defeating liberal Hillary Clinton. The spread of liberal ideology in the West has led to the collapse of many nations, including Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. The result of this liberalism is the crisis that the globe is currently experiencing. At this juncture, it is crucial to illuminate the philosophical aspects of this liberalism.
The political and economic theory known as liberalism promotes and defends individual rights, equality of opportunity, individual autonomy, and freedom. Additionally, this philosophical idea is used in many other contexts to argue against the state. The fundamental tenet of liberal thought is that each person in society possesses the rationality and ability to make decisions for him or herself and that the government ought to be involved in the lives of its citizens only to the extent required. The United States of America has been a particularly prominent nation in the propagation of this ideology throughout the world. Liberalism has been the Western world's preeminent political and economic philosophy for several centuries and has penetrated society. Liberals believe that this ideology ought to be implemented uniformly across all cultures. Another political ideology maintained by these liberals is democracy, which may be summed up as providing adequate and efficient governance for the populace. Both the English philosopher John Locke (1623–1704) and the Scottish economist and thinker Adam Smith (1723–1790) greatly respected this liberal ideology. John Locke believed that every human being was born with their rights. Adam Smith, on the other hand, believed that the only way for society to flourish was for individuals to work toward their personal development while exercising their freedom to pursue their interests. A structure like this one-use production method and marketplaces open to competition is its foundation. In places where the state does not exert control and where the authority of the government is restricted, Liberals believe that all people, regardless of factors such as ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic standing, should be treated in the same manner by the legal system. Civil liberties, which are also frequently referred to as fundamental rights and liberties, are something that liberals ardently favour, and they feel that everyone ought to have access to civil liberties. In the view of adherents of the economic liberalism philosophical school of thought, free markets and unrestricted trade are the most efficient methods of economic growth.
Ukraine's current state of affairs can be directly attributed to this liberalism. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO continued its expansion into Eastern European countries, and Europe was able to incorporate all of these countries into its domain. Not only that, NATO and the EU, including the United States, have shifted their focus to the country with which Russia shares a border: Ukraine. Western nations, especially the United States, which venerate liberal democracy and the freedom to speak one's mind, continue to exert pressure on Ukraine in the hopes that it will join the European Union. The consequences are clear to everyone now. The push toward libertarianism in Ukraine has significantly increased the country's number of difficulties. People in the eastern part of the country, who largely support Russia, have the impression that they are being coerced into adopting a way of life that is not in line with the fundamental values and principles that guide their everyday lives. This has resulted in the conflict that is currently taking place in Ukraine, where people in the East are fighting for the right to have their own country, where they may live according to their values and be free from the oppression that comes from the West.
Many experts, at the beginning of the 1990s, voiced optimism about the chance of establishing a new order in the region that was more liberal. The establishment of Ukraine prompted this optimism as a sovereign nation. However, the catastrophe unfolding in Ukraine thirty years after it began demonstrates how frail that liberal worldview was and how detached it was from the general populace. Those who disagree with the liberal worldview argue that the policies of Western governments are to blame for the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. They assert that the liberal notion of self-determination was exploited to excuse the overthrow of a government that had been democratically elected, as well as the following intervention of Russian military forces. Even though liberalism has not been very successful in actual practice and, in certain circumstances, can be damaging to countries, it is still the dominant political ideology in many parts of the world. In general, I have a firm conviction that liberalism represents a commendable goal. But if you insist on imposing your philosophy on everyone and everything, you ask for trouble.