The Pandora’s Box that was just opened also creates the precedent for the majority of humanity across the Global South whose countries were previously colonized by the Golden Billion’s to create their own such reparation registers and mechanisms. Just like the US will likely form its own so-called “coalitions of the willing” to this end, so too could countries among the jointly BRICS- and SCO-led Global South form the same as well, especially those in Africa who are fighting on the front line of the New Cold War.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya warned on Monday that the General Assembly’s passing of a resolution on Ukrainian reparations could boomerang against the US-led West’s Golden Billion. This legally non-binding development will result in the creation of an “international register” for tabulating what its participants claim Russia supposedly owes to Ukraine for the damages caused by its special operation, after which a corresponding “international mechanism” will seek to obtain this from it.
Looking beyond the high-sounding rhetoric that exploits the Western public’s well-intended efforts to implement justice as they conceive it to be in this context, shaped as their views are by the infowar against Russia that manipulated them into regarding it as guilty, this is a clever “lawfare” power play. In short, it’ll speciously “legitimize” the Golden Billion’s illegal seizure of Russia’s foreign assets and create the precedent for threatening the same against whichever side of a foreign dispute that they’re against.
Put another way, this New Cold War bloc can arm regional partners as proxies against other targeted states while holding the Damocles’ sword of foreign asset seizures on this false “lawfare” basis over the heads of the latter’s leadership to deter them from defending their objective national interests. Those that dare to do so will be accused of “unprovoked aggression”, pressured by the creation of similar such “restitution” registers and mechanisms, and likely sanctioned indefinitely until they pull out and pay up.
There’s no doubt that this new form of “lawfare” will be effectively wielded by the Golden Billion to advance its interests in the New Cold War, but Ambassador Nebenzya’s warning about it boomeranging against them shouldn’t also be downplayed either. The Pandora’s Box that was just opened also creates the precedent for the majority of humanity across the Global South whose countries were previously colonized by the Golden Billion’s to create their own such reparation registers and mechanisms.
Just like the US will likely form its own so-called “coalitions of the willing” to this end, so too could countries among the jointly BRICS- and SCO-led Global South form the same as well, especially those in Africa who are fighting on the front line of the New Cold War. The Damocles’ sword that their multipolar-patriotic leaderships like Mali’s could hold over the Golden Billions’ head is the nationalization of the latter’s assets as restitution for their formerly colonized people.
Of course, it would take immense political will to actually go through with such a major move, but it nevertheless can’t be discounted. Those Global South countries that are led by multipolar-patriotic leaderships would risk being overthrown by Golden Billion-backed coups or subjugated to hitherto unprecedentedly intense Hybrid Warfare, but they could either preempt those regime change scenarios or dramatically enhance their defensive capabilities through strategic partnerships with Russia.
That newly restored world power is actively exporting bespoke “Democratic Security” solutions to its partners across Africa, which refers to the creative employment of counter-Hybrid Warfare tactics and strategists for defending their national models of democracy from the Golden Billion’s threats. The Central African Republic and Mali have already benefited from this but more such countries are expected to solicit Russia’s related support, especially if they countenance colonial-era restitution.
Given Russia’s de facto leadership of the Global Revolutionary Movement will predictably result in it attempting to make good on its promise over the summer to help its African partners fully complete their decolonization processes, the preceding scenario shouldn’t be ignored. To the contrary, it’s more credible than ever after the Golden Billion inadvertently established the pretext upon opening Pandora’s Box through the latest UN Resolution on Ukrainian reparations.
Just like the Kosovo precedent was later employed by Russia in Georgia and Ukraine, so too might the Ukrainian reparations one be employed by myriad Global South states (especially across Africa) to demand similar such reparations from their former colonizers in the Golden Billion. So long as they feel confident enough defending themselves from that New Cold War bloc’s wrath, which Russia is expected to help them with as explained, then it’s likely that at least some of them will pursue this path.
It’s precisely this sequence of events that Ambassador Nebenzya probably had in mind when warning that the latest resolution risks boomeranging against the Golden Billion. Multipolar-patriotic leaderships across the Global South will predictably explore the pros and cons of employing similar such means as those pioneered by the West against Russia for obtaining reparations from their former colonizers. It’ll remain to be seen when and how this unfolds, but there’s little doubt that it’ll eventually happen.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 