The offensive launched in Ukraine by Russia is the largest in Europe since the end of the Second World War. In the latest issue of Spectacles du Monde, which has just appeared on newsstands, the accent is placed on the global consequences of this conflict on the military and economic levels, which will not fail to upset our future. The major military risk: that Europe and the world will be drawn into a global conflict. Also, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, diplomatic adviser to Jacques Chirac from 2002 to 2007, having negotiated at the highest level with Russia, calls in this issue for an immediate end to this dynamic of war which, through the interplay of alliances, could lead us to reproduce the infernal gear of 1914.
“We refuse to go to war while creating the conditions for confrontation”
Recalling that the Donbass has been in the grip of a latent war for more than eight years, Antoine Colonna, editor-in-chief of the magazine, first of all returns in an editorial to the diplomatic failure which led to this conflict then ” that it was not so difficult to grant Donbass a status similar to that of Catalonia or Wallonia. “A failing diplomacy which maintains this sad trajectory by now materializing only in the form of sanctions, the effects of which will further undermine the stability of a Europe already well cut by the Covid-19 crisis.
These sanctions, underlines the diplomat Maurice Gourdault-Montagne in his interview, could indirectly lead other countries into the spiral of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, despite themselves. The increase in the price of agricultural products and raw materials could lead to possible food riots », especially in Africa, economic and social unrest aggravated by major disruptions in global production chains: Russia has most of the rare metals necessary for the operation of high technologies.
“Let’s understand that Russia and NATO are about to clash”
But it is on the dynamics of war currently at work that this former ambassador to Beijing, Berlin, London and Tokyo wanted to warn. Drawing a parallel with the system of alliances which led to the Great War in 1914, he is formal: “ Let’s understand that Russia and NATO are about to clash, dragging the rest of the world in their wake. ». And to denounce: ” We refuse to go to war, yet we create the conditions for confrontation “. This is why, after giving a few recollections of the warlike “diplomacy” of the administration of Georges W. Bush when he was in office, he underlines the importance of the role of peace that France should play as a member of the UN Security Council and a nuclear power.
Among the various geopolitical experts interviewed by the magazine as part of a broader reflection on France’s foreign policy on the occasion of this presidential election: Igor Ivanov, former Russian Foreign Minister of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Poutine. Deploring, too, the lourdes » consequences that will inevitably induce the sanctions of the European Union, he develops, with a view to bringing peace in Europe in a realistic way, the need to revise the system of international relations established after -45. Believing ” illusory to proceed otherwise as in vividly testifies to the deep crisis that relations between Russia and the West are currently going through », he explains the historical role of architect of this European unity formerly supported by the France of General de Gaulle. All these specialists agree on the importance of France’s role in international affairs. ” Does she still know? asks Antoine Colonna.