For a while now, I have been observing with dismay a new form of diplomacy. Rough in tone, unyielding and insulting. LOUD.
Actually nothing you would call real diplomacy. We accept it nevertheless, that it dances along on the parquet of diplomacy, I call the whole asymmetric diplomacy.
It is like a bumpkin jumping along at the Viennese opera ball. Tolerated, but everyone knows that he does not belong there. But if now more and more of these Trumpels dance along, then we have an imbalance.
This is exactly what is happening now. The classic diplomats who could tell you what they thought with a smile and sweet words, so you had to look up what exactly they were saying. You don’t have to like the style, but it wasn’t escalating.
However, for some time now there have been gentlemen like Melnyk and Lavrov, as well as their masters Szelensky and Putin. Let’s stay with this constellation, the other players are known.
There is rattling and insults, but little is said. At least nothing of relevance.
Self-perception is shaped by the current war in Ukraine and receives widespread attention from the coalition of the willing. It’s like one of those noisy soaps or telenovelas. Every character has his fans and gets his applause.
I fear the tone will get even harsher as the loud ones line up for new positions. But when does patriotism, via fanatical nationalism, tip over into fascism?
Some of the actors have their very own interesting past…. thus politics and with it diplomacy failed and unleashed a war. Chaos and waste, an incredible waste of human lives, time, emotions and cultural treasures.
War is an obscenity. War is the result when heated politics fail and diplomacy can no longer help. Especially when asymmetric diplomacy adds fuel to the fire!
Yes, it is always preferable to submission. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is wrong, evil and bad. However we characterize war, WE usually have no control over the time and place and purpose of war.
This is also true for the soldier, he must submit.
The understanding of soldiering can be summed up in one sentence:
“When I join the military, I just have to be honest enough to say death and killing, being wounded and wounding, that’s the core of the military.”
All soldiers suffer in war and their families suffer as well. Because killing, that’s the core of the military. And all sides behave shamefully in war. There is NO good side. The lines to war crime are narrow and often crossed.
Now, the military is increasingly being privatized. It started in a big way with Blackwater because dead contractors were easier to teach to the population than coffins with flags on them. These are questioned and eventually rejected.
Increasing private sector interests in mercenaryism began to grow, ex-soldiers whether out of trauma or personality disorder offered their services to despots.
However, the current war brings a new stage. Allegedly, in addition to the Wagner group on the Russian side, rumors say a grouping of mercenaries from Eritrea has also been hired. On the Ukrainian side, alongside the fascist Azov Brigade, hundreds of “foreign legionnaires” are finding their way into the country. Professionals and amateurs. Their motives will probably be worked out in each case after the war.
But: in addition, a privatization of the war is taking place. A crowdfunded war in which civilians, relatives or the uninvolved collect funds and material to actively support a war. Even to cheer it on. In some cases, junk is delivered to the front lines, tacticool stuff that has no military value, junk that falls apart after a short time and thus can even bring danger to the user. The worst thing, however, is that such a war escapes control, as it is kept alive from uncontrollable channels. This multiplies the lack of empathy, heated atmosphere that can even give rise to local warlords.
If this concept gets out of hand, I see a time of local disputes coming our way.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
The danger is very real and is heated by hidden agendas. Is used by ego-driven politicians who want to distract from their own misdeeds and provoke a rupture in Europe.
Interest of the military industrial complex. The possibility to make a lot of profit at the expense of the general public. Eternally dissatisfied constellations like the Visegrád Group.
In worst case… Escalating local conflicts, which in the past would have been just a bar fight, can create a culture of revenge, blindness and child soldiers.
In the middle of Europe.
