Among the causes of the wars and terrorism, as well as the conflict for global hegemony between China and the United States that characterize this first quarter of the 21st century, one is often evoked: the resentment and desire for revenge of countries of the so-called global South against the centuries-old colonialism and imperialism of the capitalist West over the rest of the world. In both conflicts currently raging on Europe's borders—the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Palestinian conflict—as well as in the trade conflict and the conflict for economic, financial, technological, and military hegemony between China and the United States, the West is placed in the dock. The outcome of the Cold War, with the victory of the West (led by the United States) over the Soviet Union, was marked (as Vladimir Putin claims) by the humiliating desire of the United States to confine what for centuries were the Russian and Soviet empires within the territorial perimeter of an insignificant regional power. The war of reconquest of Ukraine expresses Russia's desire to regain its status as a major world power, a status recognized at the end of the Second World War in Yalta, Crimea, also thanks to the Red Army's decisive contribution to the liberation of Europe and the world from National Socialism. As for the Palestinian conflict, in the perception of the majority of Arab peoples – former colonies and/or protectorates of European powers – the Palestinian conflict is the long wave of an anti-colonial war of resistance for independence after the crushing defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. The State of Israel was experienced by the Palestinians as an imposition by Great Britain and the international community, and the partition of Palestine by theONU in 1947 it was not accepted by the Palestinians because they claimed the right to a national state like other peoples under British or French mandate in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq… The war in Palestine has been going on since then and is experiencing the terrible spiral of brutality that we know. China, too, declares itself a victim of the West, called upon to atone for the humiliations and exploitation it has suffered and now capable of winning the contest with the United States for global hegemony. On July 2, 2021, for the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping delivered a landmark speech, some excerpts from which are worth quoting: “After the Opium War of 1840, China has fallen into a semi-colonial society. Our homeland has been humiliated, our people martyred, and our civilization tarnished (…). The People's Republic of China has put an end to semi-colonial society and its state of disintegration, abolished unjust treaties imposed by foreign powers, and suppressed the prerogatives of imperialist countries. The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people solemnly declare to the rest of the world that the Chinese people have risen up; the era in which the Chinese nation was at the mercy of foreign powers and suffered affronts and indignities is now gone forever.” In that same speech, Xi Jinping glorified “the increasing power of the military in the new era.” "We must maintain the party's absolute control over the military and strengthen it through science and technology. This will enable it to rise to world leadership, ensuring state security and defending our development interests!"
This narrative that sees the West as an oppressor contains historically grounded elements. Serious postcolonial studies are now correcting the rhetoric that in the past uncritically praised the West as a benefactor and a factor in the development of "underdeveloped Third World countries." Where they do not stray into ideology and political affiliation (as is unfortunately happening in many cases), these studies are also useful because they can open bridges for dialogue. But does the resentment of the global South due to Western colonialism and imperialism offer a comprehensive explanation for current conflicts? Or does it herald
the beginning of that "Clash of Civilizations" (between different cultures, religions and geopolitical locations) that Samuel P. Did Huntington say it was inevitable after the end of the Cold War? The signs of an ongoing clash of civilizations are clear, and victimhood is often a mere pretext. If this were the case, the self-harm or even the “hatred of one’s own civilization” that is so widespread today will not help us deal with the conflicts that our old democracies must face. They are limping, it's true, but they are democracies and as such must be defended from those who threaten them today. Russia, as historian Yuri Afanasiev said, has never known democracy. Not only because it passed directly from the Empire of the Tsars to the communist totalitarianism of Lenin and Stalin, but because it does not know the notion of civil society. Vladimir Putin's political, religious, and cultural thought is that of Tsarism and/or Stalinism, and the Orthodox Church to which the Russian people historically refer is not antagonistic to the Emperor but dependent on political power. In the Middle East, an internal struggle is underway within the Islamic world for the hegemony of a new, nascent Ottoman Empire (with expansionist aims), while Islamic fundamentalism and jihad are fighting the West, the "infidels" of other religions, and moderate Islam, imposing the rigid application of religious law in social and political life (in the Middle East but also by infiltrating the European Islamic diaspora). How incompatible this process of involution of Islam in the Middle East (and in many communities of the Islamic diaspora) is with democracy, the rule of law, the human rights of women and men and the rights of minorities is evident. The West is being challenged on the values and foundations of its political and institutional achievements, including the possibility of finding a fruitful coexistence between religious faith and reason, which Islam seems to want to deny. The recognition of religious freedom as an inviolable right of every person, enshrined in the Second Vatican Council, opened the way to a fruitful dialogue between the secular state and the religious community. And it is precisely on the complementarity and ongoing dialogue between faith and reason that Pope Ratzinger invited Islam to discuss. Even with communist China, the ongoing conflict is not merely commercial in nature. This is a real clash of civilizations. Perhaps the most fearsome for the United States and the West, given the technological, economic and military power (including nuclear warheads) that it can deploy. The absolute political power of the Chinese single party and its policy of widespread control of the population and the repression of minorities are in open contrast with the Western democratic system and its founding values. Moreover, while Xi Jinping accuses the West of having reduced the Middle Kingdom to a semi-colonial state, China today controls and manages a commercial and economic empire on an unprecedented global scale. The ongoing clash of civilizations has taken on the characteristics of an escalation towards extremes reminiscent of the most dangerous phases of the Cold War. Despite the extreme dangers it entails, “peace through strength” sadly seems to be the only viable path.
