Multiple bullies working to create a ‘multipolar world’

• John Mearsheimer, a realist advocate of a multipolar world order, argues that U.S. President Donald Trump’s refusal to deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to the stakes at stake for Ukraine.
• Mearsheimer argues that any peace deal with Putin would require Ukraine to give up its democracy, not just some territory or hopes of North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership.
• Mearsheimer argues that democracy is not realistic in a multipolar world, as it is not feasible for a country like Ukraine to choose its own political system and foreign policy.
• Trump is eager to give Putin the regime change he wants, calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” with a “4% approval rating.”
• The kind of Ukraine that Putin and Trump want is clear, as democratic protests in Belarus and Kazakhstan have been suppressed with the help of the Russian military.
• Former U.S. President Joe Biden had attempted to force Zelenskyy to flee, hoping it would appease Putin and avert a prolonged war.
• Zelenskyy had to tell the U.S. that he was looking for ammunition, not a ride.
• Other countries where Trump and Putin want a regime in their own image include Germany, Hungary, and the EU.
• The national bullies are acting in concert to create a “multipolar world,” a world safe for all bullies and bigots.
• U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared support for a multipolar world, and Putin has always insisted that there are “two Wests”.
• The growing assertion of an illiberal international project poses the greatest threat to democracy, people, peace, and the planet today.
• It is better than never to take on the illiberal international and defend universalist human rights, democratic solidarity.