We could have been watching an old-fashioned adventure film from the days of Indiana Jones or flicking through a boy’s comic book from an era before that. The actions by the US and President Donald Trump in invading Venezuela and abducting the president and his wife come from the realms of fantasy fiction and not the real world.
But this is how the real world works now. There are already fears that Iran could be physically targeted next and then other countries which dare in some way to oppose the US and its policies. What is frightening is the silence that follows the US strike and the kidnapping of a leader and his wife, who has now been sent to a high-security prison facility.
Cuba has come out with a strongly worded condemnation and expression of solidarity for Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution which brought him and his late comrade Hugo Chavez to power at the end of the 20th century. A few other nations have spoken out in less certain terms. Most countries, like those in Europe, are either too stunned to respond or too scared to do so. They may also fear that Trump will next target Greenland, a country defended by a Danish army which consists on a few thousand personnel. Other nations remain silent, just as they had through the Israeli rampage through Palestine, which continues even as the globe looks on.
In this situation, nations, particularly smaller ones without nuclear arsenals, need to consider how they can defend themselves. Maduro had placed himself behind a strong security shield provided by his country’s military. He had also turned down offers that he be ‘relocated’ to a luxurious life in Turkiye – for all its faults, the actions of a brave man.
The answer to the Trump problem lies in the formation of regional alliances and a wider network which opposes US hegemony in a unipolar world. This is especially important as Trump has said he is limited only by ‘his own morality’ and no law, either of the US or the international community.
There is a desperate need to set up such a plan, given these views. Trump’s virtually unfettered power to do as he pleases is frightening. No nation on its own can hold him back. Solidarity, which aligns nations across ideological lines and geographical space, could achieve this. Similar ideas have, of course, been floated before, most notably when the Non-Aligned Movement was set up in 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia and held its first conference in 1961.
The essential idea behind the movement was led by nations including Egypt, the then-Yugoslavia and 119 other countries, mainly from Asia and Africa. The movement essentially attempted to form a bloc that was not aligned with any major world power but was willing to work together to set up a world less divided into two halves, depending on which power they supported.
This was imperative to the world order during the years of the cold war, when association with either the US or the then USSR determined where a country looked for support and political direction. Today, it is hard to know if any alliance would work given the presence of a man with a distorted vision and a huge ego in the White House. It is sad that the world’s most important democracy elected him to power.
Pakistan also needs to look at its own history of alliance with Washington. Where has this alliance brought us? Today, the country faces a dire economic situation and was, under US leadership, forced to follow IMF dictates that do little to benefit the nation. Pakistan needs to develop the capacity to move outside a US-promoted ideological stance and find its own independent direction.
It can do so only by working with other nations. This is not an easy task given the situation of its immediate neighbours to the east and west. An alliance with India, led by a fascist government, is impossible. But there can still be some cooperation, allowing people access to cheaper food items and other goods. The same holds true in the West, where the breakdown in trade with Afghanistan has led to multiple trade issues stopping supplies from that country and from central Asia reaching Pakistan and causing a huge humanitarian crisis for the millions of Afghans in Pakistan.
Pakistan needs to work towards a solution alongside as many other nations as possible to rally support for this purpose. Of course, breaking off ties with the US in any certain move may not be advisable. But step by step, Islamabad needs to move towards greater autonomy and a greater interest in the situation of its own people. It must not get caught up in proxy wars such as those in Yemen or Palestine. We know that Pakistan has the resources and the infrastructure to make it possible for it to move towards these goals, powered by its own force and will. It can work to mobilise this capacity and use people’s energies more coherently to reach this goal. Only if its people are secure can Pakistan hope to achieve any kind of real security for itself.
It would not be unfair to say there is no knowing what the US, led by a president whose mental health some experts in his own country have questioned, could do. The uncertainty created by such a maverick leader and the waves spreading across the world from its actions are extremely disturbing. In this scenario, Pakistan, like other countries, needs to ensure its own welfare and prioritise it.
There is really no choice given that, as things stand at the present time, we can feel tremors from places far away that in many different ways impact our own policies and our own actions. We must find a way to make sure these actions count towards bringing a better global order and strengthening our future and that of all our people. This is the best we can do as part of a world order which now feels the tremors emanating from actions taken in Washington.
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: [email protected]
