The International Peace Coalition (IPC) met online on Friday Dec. 12 for its 132nd consecutive weekly meeting, featuring a dramatic discussion on the turning point in history caused by the release of the National Security Strategy (NSS) by the Trump Administration, dated November 2025, which, as Dennis Small put it, has “kicked over the chessboard.” The opening speakers were Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute leader and initiator of the IPC; Alastair Crooke, diplomat and nearly 30 years in MI6; Graham Fuller, 20 years in the CIA and former vice-chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council; former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar; and Dennis Small, Ibero-American Intelligence Director of Executive Intelligence Review. Crooke and Fuller had been collaborators through their work in the Arab world.
Zepp-LaRouche discussed the “hysteria,” provoked by the NSS, which though it has problematic points, it breaks with the presumptions of what the U.S. will support in Europe, NATO, and elsewhere. She encouraged people to read and circulate her Dec. 8 article “Withdraw from NATO! New National Security Strategy Requires New Security Architecture. (https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2025/12/09/withdraw-from-nato-new-national-security-strategy-requires-new-security-architecture/)”
Alastair Crooke noted that the NSS marks a U.S. turn, away from the focus on China and the war in Ukraine, and openly attacks policies of the European leaders and NATO. He said what was needed was for the United States to acknowledge that its sanctions policies had utterly failed in their intent to drive China and Russia out of their leadership role in world affairs.
U.S. Tariffs Are a ‘Shakedown’
In regard to Trump’s use of tariffs, he said that this was claiming to be based on Alexander Hamilton’s promotion of tariffs for the new United States, but that Trump was using them as a “shakedown,” intended to coerce nations to invest in the United States or buy the U.S. debt. This will not work, he said, because of the massive growth of the debt bubble in the U.S.
On the Ukraine war, Crooke is concerned that Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner do not represent the Congress nor any other institutions, but that one is a real estate fiend, and the other is a personal family member of Trump. This is part of the fact that Trump is looking at the relations with Russia and Ukraine in terms of money, over “who gets the money, be it BlackRock or the EU,” as demonstrated by the insane European seizure of the Russian reserves. The Europeans have become “psychotic,” he said, in their wildly false contention that they could “defeat Russia.”
On Venezuela, Crooke noted that President Nicolás Maduro had offered to allow the U.S. oil and mining companies to essentially take over the natural wealth of the country, but Trump said “No.” Why would he turn this down, Crooke asked? It must be seen in the context of China’s counteroffer during the Shanghai Expo in November, to implement a zero-tariff trade policy and invest in the Venezuela oil and mining sector itself, without the conditionalities demanded by the U.S., insisting on being an “ally” and maintaining dollar hegemony. The U.S. now wants to establish something like a blockade, keeping China (and others) out. Crooke doubts that China will simply accept this.
Graham Fuller said that he was “shocked” by the NSS as the biggest shift in world affairs since the fall of the U.S.S.R., and yet, he said, there had been no warning that this was in the works, not from the press nor from the pundits. He also was amazed that Europe appears to have lost its sense of history and is ignoring the dramatic shift in Asia. He asked for Crooke’s view.
’Davos Values’ Took Over NATO
Crooke responded that it began with the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, without any approval from the United Nations. That led to the transformation of NATO as a force for military defense into an offensive force based on political criteria, which Crooke called “liberal values, the Davos values.” That became universal, with the leaders of NATO and Western nations all coming from the same clique. This was reinforced when U.S. President Joe Biden gave his “Manichean” speech in the UN, followed by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen giving an almost verbatim speech. Thus, the mention of “good vs evil,” “light vs. darkness,” “autocracy vs. freedom” became the standard replacement for serious intelligence and diplomacy, a “lever” for a conflict with Russia—“irrational, and dangerous.” The irony is that Europe now has no democracy at all. Even the EU European Commission leadership is unelected.
Crooke reported that he had been in both Russia and China over the past weeks, and they know this about the West. The Russians, in particular, know that Europe has no money, no weapons nor manpower to fight a war with Russia, yet they promote war all the time. Crooke says he believes they can’t fight such a war, “but they can provoke a war,” and even small countries like Estonia can do so. The intention is similar to Winston Churchill’s use of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to bring the U.S. into a war against Germany. The population in Europe is not ready for war—“they are more interested in holidays and designer shoes.” The preconditions for a solution have been taken down. They are the autocracy they complain about.
Zepp-LaRouche expressed agreement with both Crooke and Fuller. Europe suffers from the neoliberal system, which is getting worse. There are attacks on the Classics, against truth and beauty, and instead, attention is paid to minor things that are “interesting.” The West has become “more and more insane, pornographic.” She referenced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment that the West has turned against the morals of their grandparents, adopting a “post-Christian ideology.” The great poets and scientists are gone. Our friends in the Global South “can’t understand why the West is destroying itself.” We must be more like Asia, which is reaching back to its best (Confucian) traditions for a new cultural era: “We must look back to the Italian Renaissance, the German high culture, to rediscover our earlier contributions to the human species.”
Danger of the U.S. in the Caribbean
Former Guyana President Donald Ramotar then spoke, posing the great danger inherent in the NSS concept of America throwing out international law and threatening to take over South America and the Caribbean. He said that the leaders in the region are terrified, afraid to speak out for fear of American economic or military attacks. “The silence is deafening,” he said. The effort is to push China out, even though it is China that is “building the infrastructure which we have been denied for so long.” It appears that the oil and mining companies are running policy in Washington. Trump’s approach to Russia is admirable, but he doubts that any future President will sustain it. He appreciates the migration problem, “but they must understand that they created this themselves.”
EIR’s Dennis Small pointed out that the virtue of the NSS is that it is “kicking over the chessboard,” putting a hold on the rush to nuclear war. But it lacks any idea of “how to put it together again.” He pointed to Crooke’s emphasis on the debt crisis. He reviewed his work on the massive debt of the U.S. and worldwide, in addition to the $2 quadrillion in derivative debt, demonstrating that the Western financial system is bankrupt. Either this is put through bankruptcy reorganization or there will be collapse and war. That is the story behind the attack on Venezuela: The real target in South America is Brazil and the BRICS.
Crooke noted that China and others are trying to find a way to work with the West to deal with this debt crisis, but they can’t find the means for discussion. If the U.S. bubble bursts, it will cause political and economic crises around the world. Russia and China, in the meantime, must consider means of defending themselves from this threat. “I saw in China that they could easily expand their successful development system to the rest of Eurasia, to everyone’s benefit, while the West simply replies that should they move to do that, “they are attacking the dollar.” Given that Trump changes his mind every day makes it difficult to work with him.
In the Q&A session, Zepp-LaRouche answered questions on Nicholas of Cusa, and another on the Tenth Principle of her Ten Principles.
She stressed in conclusion that the Peace of Westphalia followed 150 years of war and general chaos, until the belligerents recognized it must stop or there would be no one left. That is more real today, in the nuclear age. “Putin’s patience will eventually come to an end.” If the West would get together with Russia and China “all the problems of the world could be solved.” She proposed a global Glass-Steagall based on FDR’s policies.
