geo
02/12/2009
(Le point de vue est géopolitique, ce qui peut garder une valeur en période psychopolitique même si l’articulation des deux perspectives présente des difficultés.)
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/commentr.htm
“Western Europe and Russia - Coming Together”
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The slow process of creating a lasting geopolitical alliance of western Europe and Russia has a long history, which is slowly maturing. It may be traced to the visit of President Charles De Gaulle to the Soviet Union in 1944, where he signed the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance. It was a way to reassert France’s centrality in European politics and to take his distance from his somewhat reluctant allies, the United States and Great Britain. For De Gaulle, geopolitical interests overrode ideological differences.
The next crucial moment was the pursuit by West Germany’s Social-Democratic Chancellor, Willy Brandt, of the so-called Ostpolitik, after he came to power in 1969. It involved new diplomatic détente with the Soviet Union (as well as the opening of communications with East Germany).
The third crucial moment was the great debate in the late 1970s and 1980s about the construction of a gas pipeline (gazoduc) from the Soviet Union to western Europe, which was supported by Germany, France, and even Mrs. Thatcher’s Great Britain.
The fourth crucial moment was the proclamation by Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 of the need to construct “a common European home.”
What was common to all four moments was that they were all seen by the United States as at least dubious propositions and at worst initiatives that potentially undermined the global interests of the United States.
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Since then, and somewhat under the world’s radar, these relations have continued to advance, despite U.S. continued hostility and the general fear and opposition of the governments in power in the erstwhile satellite states of eastern-central Europe.
Putin continues to use the mechanism of one of his biggest trump cards, Russia’s natural gas exports, as the mode of consolidating these links. The debate since the 1990s has been over the routing of new massive pipelines from Russia and Central Asia to western Europe.
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In any case, in what Le Monde calls a “masterstroke,” Putin came to Paris in late November to seal a deal with the French to work together to achieve both the North Stream and the South Stream pipelines. A key French figure, the CEO of GDF Suez, Gérard Mestrallet, said “Russia is an indispensable partner, for the future and for Europe.” France’s President, Nicholas Sarkozy, has called for “a space of common security” between Europe and Russia. This is the same Sarkozy who is hailed in Washington as the most pro-American French president since 1945. Once again, geopolitical interests are overriding ideological differences.
The eastern-central European states will probably fall in line, unhappily and fearfully. But geopolitical reality is that the United States can do very little now to slow down the approaching grand alliance.
by Immanuel Wallerstein
L’article est du début décembre.
Selon l’usage du Fernand Braudel Center, une version française sera sans doute mise en ligne au cous du mois.
Francis Lambert
21/12/2009
Un site de référence, très facile à lire et avec de nombreux auteurs.
L’index de fréquence des mots ouvre de nouveaux parcours hors son intérêt propre.
Trois livres :
- Considérations sur la France
(LA phrase dès le second écran, 6e alinéa mais je préfère le 3e)
- Lettres à un gentilhomme russe sur l’Inquisition espagnole (1815)
- Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg (1821)
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