Western governments are spluttering with indignation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula – but in an economically interconnected world, spluttering may be their only response. US President Barack Obama promised “consequences”, and European Union foreign ministers rushed to emergency meetings. “But there’s nothing we can do,” says Keir Giles of Chatham House, an international affairs think-tank based in London.
One might think that the main obstacle to any Western military action is Russia’s size and 1300 nuclear warheads ready to launch. However it is not. In reality, the chief stumbling block to any Western action is the interconnectedness of the global economy. Sevastopol, the Crimean town which is the only port for Russia’s Black Sea fleet, is also vital for grain shipments. Ukraine is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of wheat and fourth-largest of maize, accounting for 18 per cent of the world’s maize exports. Disrupting that with military action or a blockade would destabilise grain prices, causing political unrest worldwide. Wheat and corn prices have already jumped over the current confrontation. (1)
In an interconnected world, there is so little you can do to harm the other without harming your self.
Think about it.
We are all living in the same world.
We are all interconnected.
Harming others means harming our own self.
Loving others means loving us.
In a cosmos old enough, One is the only option.
Is that the answer we have been searching for thousands of years in philosophy?
The command “ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους” certainly sounds more wise under that perspective…
