These people are so stupid. It is mind-numbing. This is former British PM, John Major, talking to the BBC:
It’s extremely odd to lecture Europe on the subject of free speech and democracy at the same time as they’re cuddling Mr. Putin.
He is criticising US Vice-President Vance for his speech in Munich in which he castigates Europe for forgetting its values of free speech. Vance was, in particular, talking about how the liberal establishment tries to suppress “populist” political movements. However; the US is not “cuddling” “Mr Putin”. The US may be trying to pull out of a proxy war which has no strategic value to the US; a very sensible thing to do. But, that isn’t the point. I pick on this because Major unwittingly encapsulates the error of the global liberals as neatly as anyone could.
Europe claims to have a tradition of free speech and democracy. In Vance’s telling, (and not without reason), Europe is walking away from this – as “politically correct” speech is enforced and popular political parties are shut out of power by cartels of the established. US relations with Russia are a matter of US foreign policy. The US should, in questions of foreign policy, act according to its strategic interests. It should be concerned with the intentions and power of other states, as well as, of course, opportunities for economic cooperation. The domestic political situation of other countries is not part of this calculous. The liberal mistake is to try to expand liberalism all over the globe; to bring liberalism into inter-state relations where it really has no place, and to seek to impose liberalism on all other countries, by force if necessary. In reality, there is no contradiction at all in “lecturing” Europe about drifting away from their espoused values and having a hard-headed foreign policy in relation to Russia. This is because Europe wants to be protected by the US and so the US not unreasonably wants to remind Europe of, (what they see as), their shared values. On the other hand, Russia is not seeking US protection, so Vance does not need to remind it of the value system that that protection demands. From the point of view of US foreign policy it doesn’t matter if Russia is not a liberal democracy.
Essentially Major is doing no more than say “we should hate Russia and have nothing to do with them, even go to war with them, because they don’t have our liberal values”. This is the blind stupid position underlying 90% of Western “thinking” on Ukraine. (Doubly ironic, of course, since Ukraine is not a liberal democracy itself). Vance and the new US Administration is several steps above him in their understanding of international affairs.
The definitive critique of the doctrine of international liberalism is Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities by John Mearsheimer.