Friday, April 15, 2022
As I am writing this, all of Europe is shocked over the terrible news coming from the areas in Ukraine where the Russian army has left. It seems only fitting to call this war crimes although this seems a bit underwhelming term in describing these horrors. There is a continued determination to send more arms to Ukraine to fight off another Russian assault that is now directed to the part Donbass that is controlled by the Ukrainian army. Simultaneously, a candidate EU Membership for Ukraine suddenly looks a credible prospect. This would have been unthinkable one year ago. This war is driving a massive uptick in European defense cooperation in terms of rearming European armies. At the same time it is remarkable that it is the NATO that seems to have grown in relevance and prominence, including for those countries (like France) that are the strongest proponents of EU defense cooperation. Finland and Sweden are apparently planning to join NATO as a consequence of the Russian aggression instead of advocating for an ‘EU army’. From the perspective of our wider political movement this development is preferrable above the idea of the EU creating a defense apparatus outside of NATO. This terrible war is a strong argument to maintain a strong transatlantic alliance as we are dealing with a global threat that is not just coming from Russia. One remarkable (but predictable) piece of news was that now Iran is smuggling arms from Iraq to Russia. Moreover China is apparently considering to give some support to Russia in terms of support via Chinese military industry. These developments underscore the core premise of the Sallux statement released some days before Russia invaded Ukraine, namely that the free world has to defend freedom against the aggression of this ‘block’ of authoritarian and expansionist regimes. As the threat is bigger than Russian aggression we need to understand and counteract this development at a global scale. We need to understand that these autocrats are cooperating on the global level and they are filling all the space we leave open to them. There where we prefer to act based on short-term economic interests instead of supporting fundamental freedoms and human rights, we allow these authoritarian regimes to gain a foothold. We can see this already in the growing footprint of Russia, China, Iran and also Turkey in the global south. Due to the war in Ukraine we understand now that a policy of decades of appeasing Putin and buying Russian gas is now backfiring badly against us. However, we have been repeating that pattern at a global scale. Whether it is Turkey, China or Iran (or their proxies) this ‘appeasement approach’ is repeated time and again. There is a deep-running narrative that this appeasement is diplomacy and that we can ‘strengthen the reformers and bring change in oppressive systems through economic ties’. Time and again this means that fundamental freedoms and human rights ‘will be raised’ but never get priority because economic interests trump those concerns. Even as Europe is (rightly) supporting Ukraine, it is ignoring the bombs that Turkey is dropping on the Yazidi’s in Sinjar in Iraq. While we (rightly) condemn the terrible oppression in Russia and Belarus, the EU is pushing for a deal with Iran that will ensure that there will be a massive increase of money flowing into the coffers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This while the IRGC is the main reason for oppression in Iran and Syria, is destabilizing Iraq and Lebanon and wants to perpetuate the war in Yemen. While we condemn the heinous crimes committed by Russia, there are no real consequences over the Chinese genocide against the Uyghur. As with Russia, this appeasement has failed to deliver any change in the behavior of these regimes. If anything these regimes have become more aggressive and increased their presence in Africa and South America. On top of this, this selective approach (hard against Russia, soft elsewhere) creates the impression in the Middle-East and Africa is that we only care for the freedom and human rights of ‘white Europeans’. This while we need to cooperate with the whole world to face the authoritarian challenge. Moreover, this approach leads to massive costs for the taxpayer who has to foot the bill for the fallout in the form of increased refugee streams and security concerns. The whole appeasement approach has not only failed, it is also unsustainable in terms of costs. Where we fail to support civil society, where we ignore the plight of ethnic minorities and instead prefer to appease the oppressors and aggressors, we are bound to ultimately create more ‘client states’ for Russia and China. We need a fundamental change in all our foreign policy. We need a foreign policy based on equal human dignity of all people who all need fundamental freedoms and human rights. It does not mean that we end all diplomatic and economic ties with countries run by autocrats but it does mean that we give real priority to fundamental freedoms and human rights. It means also that we reject all extremist oppression, whether that is Islamist, communist or fascist and that we do no longer use ‘the one against the other’ as they all are a threat to freedom and security. This requires a true change in mentality throughout our foreign policy towards a thorough awareness of the human dignity of all people. That is why this is the topic of our ‘Salt & Light event’ at 10 June in Amsterdam. Ultimately this foundational concept of human dignity is rooted in Christianity as the coming of Christ has made it clear that God loves the world and every individual human being. Easter means that God became in Christ human to sacrifice Himself for all humanity to liberate us from sin and all its oppressive consequences. This Easter we will celebrate that Christ is risen and that there is hope amidst the terrible things that are happening right now. The challenge is whether we truly understand Easter and whether God’s love for all people will also shape how we as Europe approach the world beyond our continent. Wishing you a blessed Easter! Johannes de Jong