Of Nato and Quad

The colonial and imperialist powers imposed bipolar world order after the Second World War by launching the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The idea was to destroy every alternative like USSR experiments and establish capitalism as the only political and economic ideology. The hegemonic world politics emanating from it during 1945 to 1953 created conditions for the growth of the Cold War from 1953 to 1962. The temporary peace during détente ended with the renewed tension between Washington and Moscow. From the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 to the Euromissile crisis of late 1970s, the world witnessed the imperialist manoeuvres to dominate political power and control economic resources of the newly independent countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The newly independent postcolonial countries were denied in their attempts to be free from these twin power blocs by following apparently independent foreign policy under the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Strictly speaking NAM was a bit pro-Soviet and it was quite natural. The neo-colonial economic policies and imperialist military adventures by the European and American powers have destroyed the abilities of the NAM countries to pursue independent foreign and economic policies.

The persons in power in Washington are recklessly on overdrive to reverse the conditions for a multi-polar and democratic world order. The salvo of US imperialism is threatening world peace by reviving its anti-Asian imperialist projects by setting up regional and global formations against China. In this new age of imperialism, there is no competition among imperial powers for dominance. The collaborations have replaced competition among erstwhile imperialist and colonial powers. The NATO was the first major form of imperialist collaboration, which continues to exist and expands its military adventures to change political regimes in the name of democracy.

The imperialist and colonial collective called the NATO as an organisation should have been abandoned after the fall of Soviet Union. Instead NATO has started consolidating and expanding its bases in the name of establishing free market democracy across the world.

The NATO has established an informal strategic forum called the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) between the United States, Japan, Australia and India. The mission and vision of such a strategic forum was shaped by the NATO think tank called the 'Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS). The CSIS Alliances and American Leadership Programme is pushing the Quad towards a formal military alliance like the NATO in Asia Pacific region. So, the Quad can be called 'Asian NATO'. The CSIS calls such an alliance as diamond. Shinzo Abe has called it as an "Arc of Freedom and Prosperity". It sounds exactly like the Charter of Paris for a New Europe based on the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, which proclaimed to 'build, consolidate and strengthen democracy as the only system of government'. In reality, it accelerated the establishment of unfettered capitalism in Europe. Quad (Asian NATO) is against Asia and interests of the Asian people in letter and spirit. The central idea is to contain and destroy Chinese model of economic development by fueling regional wars and conflicts between India and China. It is against peace and prosperity in Asia. It is against regional and world peace. It was informally created during the natural calamity like Tsunami and attempts are being made to formalise it during global health crisis -Covid-19. How does military exercises help in disaster relief and rehabilitation of people? The human tragedies are inseparable part of imperialist designs. The outcomes are not going to be different. If the dreams of Quad become a reality, it would be a disaster; threatening peace in Asia and destroy prosperity in the world.

A 'no war, no peace' situation in the Himalayan region where India and China are in a permanent state of military confrontation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), suits the interest of NATO well.

Frontier
Vol. 53, No. 19, Nov 8 - 14, 2020