2023-06-02 20:52:04
Relaxed, smiling and comfortably distanced from active politics, Hillary Clinton has offered this Friday in Barcelona a panoramic view of the big world affairs of which he was the protagonist for many years. Brandishing a veiled dose of self-criticism, the former United States Secretary of State acknowledged that the West’s reluctance to confront Vladimir Putin for years, who has already warned of his intentions with the Russian intervention in Georgia in 2008 or the annexation of the Crimea Ukraine in 2014, paved the way for the invasion of Ukraine. “Nobody wanted to accept that Putin would become the aggressor of Europe to endanger the order created after the Second World War and the autonomy of the former Soviet republics,” he said during the conversation of just over an hour. “We dedicated ourselves to imposing some sanction and criticizing him rhetorically. There was no appetite for more.”
Hillary was the highlight of the 50th anniversary of the CIDOB (Barcelona Center for International Relations), one of the main laboratories of ideas dedicated to international relations in Spain, a country where they are not abundant. It was the first time that she had visited the Catalan capital in her 75-year life, which she arrived on Thursday after spending a few days in Madrid, always accompanied by the ambassador Julissa Reynoso, with whom he maintains a close friendship. Accustomed to arousing mixed passions in the US, where many Republicans have made demonizing her a way of life, Hillary found nothing but applause at the MACBA Chapelfull to the brim.
During her time at the helm of US diplomacy, Clinton had to deal directly with Putin, whom she defined as a “dictator reminiscent of the tsars and dreams to re-establish the Russian empire”. In his opinion, the Kremlin autocrat miscalculated in Ukraine. He went from that Donald Trump promised to take the US out of NATO if he were re-elected in 2020, a claim he made based on the memoirs of John Boltonwho was the Republican’s Secretary of State, to find a United Front in the West. “He did not count on Western solidarity or on some sanctions so harshthe massive military aid to Ukraine and, above all, with the leadership of Volodímir Zelenski and the courage of the Ukrainians”, said Hillary during the conversation in interview format that she had with the director of CIDOB, Pol Morillas.
The future of the world order
The fate of the international relations, he stressed, is being played in the tortured Slavic country. “Ukraine will decide what kind of world order we are capable of building,” he said with the seriousness that permeated at times during the conversation. “We have to support Ukraine because not only the integrity of its neighbors is at stake, but also the very western democracy”.
The also former first lady and former senator from New York maintained that the Russian military fiascoas well as the vehement Western response, has had an enormous influence on China and your neighborhood. “Xi (Jinping) expected a quick victory for Russia.” An outcome that, in his opinion, would have helped Beijing to more firmly project its growing hegemony in asia. And perhaps to hit on taiwan. “Putin’s aggressive behavior in Ukraine has made Asian countries rethink their security,” he said before referring to increased military spending in Japan or the Philippines’ rapprochement with Washington.
Clinton has kept a low profile since leaving active politics in 2016 after losing the election to Trump. Apart from giving a lecture, she dedicates time to clinton foundation y Onward Togetheranother organization that she founded herself in 2017 to raise funds for progressive causes. Last February she also began to teach International Relations classes at the Columbia University.
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Of his Republican nemesis, whom he described as “a clever demagogue, like all demagogues”, he spoke justly. Of course, she was in charge of remembering that in the elections that he lost he obtained more than three million votes more than Trump, a puya that made the audience laugh. And he accused the republicans of having embarked on all kinds of dirty tricks to make sure that even though they continue to lose the popular vote, they will be able to win the electoral vote that opens the doors of the White House. “I am sure that if we can count the votes like the rest of the world, Biden will win re-election,” she said emphatically.
The one of these days has been his fourth visit to spainof which he said that he should lead the rapprochement with Latin America. Hillary acknowledged that both the Europeans and the Americans have neglected the region, as they have Africa, regions that have largely turned their backs on the Western Front in Ukraine to defeat Putin’s troops.
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