Enmity breeds alliances

Listen to article

During the Cold War, small and developing nations aligned themselves with either the Soviet or the American bloc in order to gain an insurance policy for their continued survival and defence needs. Pakistan joined the American bloc and lived with the insurance policy which was called "borrowed power" allowing it to create some semblance of stability against an aggressive India, which back then did not accept the creation of Pakistan.

India, on the other hand, had decided to join the global power that happened to live in the neighborhood. The Soviet Union had enlisted India as a shield against an expansive America that was enlisting countries in the Soviet neighborhood.

The reality is that it wasn't just the weak states that needed the American or the Russian friendship as an insurance for their defence needs. The global powers, both America and Russia, needed the same. It was a perfect 'you scratch my back and I scratch yours' arrangement between these strong and weak states.

America needed a presence in the region to contain Russia. Russia needed the same to check exactly that American design. Therefore, it had enlisted states around the world to guarantee its own defence. Both America and the Soviet Union were providing defence insurance to weak states and buying the same in return. It was a barter where the same services were exchanged. I'll keep you safe as long as you are my attack dog.

The story of Europe, the United States and Russia is no different. Europe believes that their continued security against an aggressive Russia is due to the backing provided by the Americans. In return, the United States also needs Europe to be its partner in checking Russian designs of venturing into Europe and causing America to lose Europe. Pakistan needed the Taliban so as to have access to their land for their strategic depth needs in the event of an all-out war with India because Pakistan expands more between south and north but not much between east and west.

So, it needs that space to be able to retreat into its west so as to keep the fight with India, which is to its east. The Taliban needed Pakistan to keep providing weapons and other forms of support so as to fight and eventually drive both the Russians as well as the Americans out of their land.

If states did not have enemies, there would perhaps be no need for these military and other alliances. America wouldn't need Israel as a cop on the beat to do the dirty work in the Middle East and Israel wouldn't need American and European help if it did not snatch land that did not belong to the Jews. If America had decided to keep its hands out of other people's affairs and decided to focus on its own people, there would perhaps be no enemies to deal with and hence no need to create these fake alliances.

Imagine a world where the United States is no more meddling in other countries, where it does not support Israeli aggression, where it did not side with anyone in the Korean war, where it did not see the rise of Russia as a threat to its hegemonic powers, where it did not see China as a threat to America being on the throne, where no lands were invaded based on lies or any other excuse, where no political engineering was done in other states at the behest of the Americans, then there would most likely be no enemies of America. And in a world like this, America wouldn't need alliances, which bred further enmities because alliances encourage states to continue to feed hatred against their enemy state. The vicious cycle goes on.

If there are no enemies, there would just be trade partners but humans are wired for overreach and competition. And the satisfaction of those urges lead to conflict. Humans fight on earth and they will fight when they colonise other planets. It is just who we are.