Is the West destined to lose its economic dominance?

 WE ARE WITNESSING THE RESULT OF STRATEGIC POLITICAL FAILURES

CONFRONTATION NEEDS TO BE REPLACED WITH COEXISTENCE  

In retrospect we can now see that the present series of global crisis is culminating in the emergence of a multipolar economic reality. It may be very well be too late to rescue the West's history of economic dominance. A continued effort to confront, contain and weaken this new economic reality will only hasten the economic decline of the West.

Much of this is the result of decisions made after the end of the Soviet Union. Rather than embrace the opportunity of peaceful and cooperative prosperity it was viewed as an opportunity to use the power of being the only superpower to fashion the world with the use of that power. It escalated into regime change and economic sanctions and intimidation.

While much of this started directly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, a turning point was made in 2008 when Bush 2 made his remarks about expanding NATO into Ukraine and Georgia, followed by regime change operations in both those countries and then the efforts to end energy sales by Russia into Europe. It is no coincidence that the BRICS economic union was founded the same year.

While the energy cooperation between Russia and Europe was beneficial to both, it was viewed as allowing Russia to prosper. Europe in reality will economically decline without the affordable energy available from Russia, but it seems control is more desirable than buying it, even with lucrative long range contracts. 

I would expect that Europe and Russia will not reestablish economic ties for decades, if ever.

Then there is China, which has in 50 years transformed the nation to the fasted growing economy in the world. It no longer is just a low cost producer of consumer goods but has emerged as an innovative leader in nuclear energy and other high tech inventions. It is the manufacturing giant of the 21st century.

The massive sanctions and confiscation of Russian assets set off alarms in the rest of the world that they needed to become independent of the western economic system. China began its belt and road initiative which would move commerce in Asia and western Asia by ground rather than be vulnerable to western naval power, at the same time it has began to expand its navy to protect its shipping worldwide. 

It is no secret that the west, saddled with enormous debt and a limited manufacturing capacity will not be able to compete with this immense manufacturing capacity. While these realities are labeled as aggression by the west it is just the realistic reaction to threats of war and now trade war.

One can expect that China is now willing to forgo commerce with the west and to work to build economic ties with the rest of the world. While their economy will suffer in the short run, the suffering will be felt by all involved.

While the west was engaging in regime change and violent overthrow of countries and doing it with borrowed money, the BRICS group has been building relations and commerce based on mutual prosperity. Both Russia and China have made huge diplomatic inroads in Africa, the middle east, the whole of Asia and even South America.

While the hope for the United States to rebuild its manufacturing base has good intentions, it would take 30 years of a unified approach, which is not on the horizon, if it made all the right decisions. The U.S. political system is more concerned with capturing political power and reaping the spoils of the bureaucracy.

The reality is Russia and China understand their position with the west and that they have no future in the western economic system, sadly much of the world is going to join them.