By Wu Chuping
The 2022 Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) recently wrapped up in Madrid. As the world’s largest military alliance, the NATO has woven a U.S.-centered global military network together with U.S. military allies in Asia Pacific and around 750 U.S. military bases in 80 countries and regions.
Facts prove that the U.S. military alliance system has already become a tool of the U.S. to maintain its global hegemony. This system is against the trend of the times and the aspiration of people, and seriously threatens world peace and security.
Humankind aspires to peace and security. However, U.S. military alliances have frequently launched wars. To seek private gains, the U.S. always neglects the purposes and principles of the UN, and the sovereignty and dignity of other countries, acting as a bully together with its allies.
Throughout the 246-year history of the U.S., there were only 16 years in which the country was not at war with others. The warlike country and its allies have repeatedly aroused anti-war protests around the world.
The world needs common development, but U.S. military alliances are forcing poverty and underdevelopment upon others. According to incomplete statistics, the wars initiated and joined by the U.S.-led NATO have displaced over 10 million refugees since 2001.
Struggling to live on the ruins caused by the U.S., people in Iraq and Afghanistan are not only facing poor infrastructure, high unemployment and scarce public services, but also expanding influence of terrorist forces.
As most countries in the world are calling for win-win cooperation, U.S. military alliances are hyping division and confrontation. Countries should work as one to cope with global governance challenges, but U.S. military alliances are clinging to Cold War mentality and zero-sum game.
Rather than being dissolved after the end of the Cold War, the NATO made five rounds ofeastward expansions led by the U.S., which finally triggered the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Provoking confrontation between the two countries, the U.S. instigated the NATO to strengthen presence in the alliance’s east part, accelerate northward expansion and enhance sanctions against Russia. It looks like the U.S. has raised the curtain for a new Cold War in Europe.
Besides, the U.S. is also tightening its alliances in Asia Pacific. It knocked together the so-called Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and AUKUS, and invited its Asia Pacific allies for the first time to attend the NATO Summit, trying to build a military chain to contain China and make the peaceful situation in Asia Pacific tense. Besides, the U.S. has extended the reach of military alliances to the spheres of economy and technology, forging exclusive cliques to serve its scheme of major country competition.
The world is in dire need of new global security governance when it is facing complicated international situations and security challenges.
In April this year, China proposed the Global Security Initiative (GSI), calling on the world to stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and to protect the indivisible security community where all mankind live, so as to pave the way for a new type of security that features dialogue, partnership and win-win instead of confrontation, alliance and a zero-sum approach.
The GSI responds to the strong voice made by the people around the world for peace and development and charts the course for global security governance. It will inject strong impetus into tackling security dilemma and building a community with a shared future for mankind.
The world should make joint efforts to implement the initiative. All countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected, and any hegemonic practice that violates sovereignty must be opposed. The world should firmly safeguard the authoritativeness of the UN and true multilateralism, and abandon the outdated alliance-led practice that divides global security governance, so as to avoid a new Cold War.
Countries must accommodate each other’s reasonable security concerns, oppose pursuing security at the sacrifice of other’ security, stay committed to the general direction of promoting peace talks and jointly working for political solutions to hotspot issues, and oppose double standard and unilateral sanctions.
They should follow a coordinated approach to safeguarding traditional and non-traditional security, emphasize both development and security, and address root causes. They should work to safeguard the hard-won prosperity achieved in Asia Pacific over the past decades, build a regional security framework that’s balanced, effective and sustainable, oppose an “Asian version” of the NATO and oppose dividing the region with alliances.
The tide of history is mighty. Those who follow it will prosper, while those who go against it will perish. The U.S. should conform to the trend of the times and the aspiration of the people around the world, abandon the outdated alliance and confrontation mentality, and stop the wrongdoing of hindering world peace with military alliances.
