The Lead
BRICS on the Move To Replace the West’s ‘Law of The Jungle’
by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — Jan. 15, 2024
The world is in the throes of a tectonic shakeup, which is not about to come to a halt anytime soon, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche told associates on Jan. 15. We are at the end of an era, and 2024 will be decisive in determining what the outcome will be.
The open calls for preparing full-scale war against Russia and China are growing in the NATO nations, she said, as seen in the recent comments of German, Finnish and Swedish authorities who have announced that their countries must prepare for war with Russia on European territory in the next few years. Similarly, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps delivered an aggressive speech at Lancaster House in London on Jan. 15, in which he proudly announced that 20,000 British soldiers will participate in NATO’s Steadfast Defender 24 military exercise later this year: “The foundations of the world order are being shaken to their core. We stand at a crossroads,” Shapps intoned.
In Southwest Asia, not only is the brutal war in Gaza escalating, despite the stunning legal case against Israeli genocide that South Africa presented last week at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, but it now threatens to spread to the Red Sea, with the United States and the United Kingdom launching missile and other strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. As an editorial in China Daily put it: “Washington should rein in the bloodlust of Tel Aviv if it wants to stop the attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The fact that it hasn’t already done so … suggests that Washington intends to take advantage of the Gaza conflict to create turmoil in the region once again.”
Unchecked, this trajectory will take mankind back to the law of the jungle, to the war of each against all—which, in the nuclear age, means the likely annihilation of the human species.
That trajectory, however, is not proceeding unchecked. With London and Washington on a rampage for further wars, as they discredit and dismantle essential world institutions such as the UN and its ICJ, the BRICS process is on the march, creating and strengthening new institutions to meet the common needs of Mankind. And that is intersecting unprecedented political ferment in Germany, with the farmers’ protests, and growing anti-war demonstrations in other Western nations, and in fact across the world.
The current trip of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Egypt—as part of a broader trip which will take him to Tunisia, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire in Africa, followed by Brazil and Jamaica—is exemplary of how the Global Majority is systematically building a new paradigm. Wang announced that China and Egypt, which joined the BRICS on Jan. 1, 2024, had signed an accord to “jointly work on high-quality construction of the Belt and Road to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results at a higher level.” He also stated “China’s readiness to work with Egypt to strengthen BRICS cooperation” in key areas, including “infrastructure, like development of the new Egyptian capital, railway projects, and space collaboration with the launch of Egypt’s second satellite,” Global Times reported. “There is also cooperation in oil development, with new oil fields discovered in Egypt, as well as in aviation and technology.”
On Jan. 12, right before Wang’s departure to Egypt, China’s State Council issued a policy statement indicating a far-reaching strategic initiative towards Africa: “a general plan for building a pioneering zone for in-depth China-Africa economic and trade cooperation … to boost the high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation and build a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future.”
Other BRICS nations are also in high gear. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar is in Iran for meetings with that country’s Foreign Minister and President. The talks focused on “political cooperation, connectivity initiatives”—both countries are members of the BRICS-10—with Jaishankar expressing that India and Iran are “united by our deep cultural, literary and linguistic ties.” (Recall that Iran is a country otherwise victimized by increasing Western sanctions since 1979.) And the government of Russia, which will preside over the BRICS in 2024, has announced more than 100 high-level meetings and policy conferences with its fellow BRICS member nations—which were expanded to 10 as of Jan. 1, 2024.
Contrary to Henry Kissinger’s racist dictum that “history is not made in the South,” the leading force for global change is now coming from that very Global South.
As Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated in her remarks with associates, our task is to get forces that are in motion into a full strategic discussion of the solutions to the crisis. British geopolitics must come to an end, and the West must sit down to negotiate and reach agreements with the Global Majority—not try to impose the law of the jungle upon them.
An entirely new paradigm must be forged, using the Ten Principles proposed by Zepp-LaRouche as a jumping off point for the kind of in-depth policy discussions required. Youth from around the world will do just that this coming Saturday, Jan. 20, in an international youth dialogue with Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Register here: https://schillerinstitute.nationbuilder.com/conference_20240120
Contents
New World Paradigm
- Wang Yi in Egypt Presents Four-Point Agreement (↓)
- Global Times Stresses Role of New Institutions in China-Egypt Relations (↓)
- Indian Foreign Minister Visit to Iran Strengthens Ties Between ‘Two Old Friends’ (↓)
Strategic War Danger
- U.K. Committing 20,000 Troops to NATO Exercise for ‘New Era’ of Warfare (↓)
- China Daily Editorial Says U.S. ‘Has Enabled Israel To Upgrade Its Offensive in Gaza’ (↓)
- ‘South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel Is Imperfect but Persuasive; It May Win’ (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
- Opposition to Gaza Policy at ‘Boiling Point’ within U.S. Government; Walkout Planned (↓)
- The Red Sea and Suez Canal Crisis: Cui Prodest? (↓)
LaRouche movement
Harley Schlanger Update
Watch The Daily Update with Harley Schlanger, a short video update available every weekday morning from The LaRouche Organization.
