The Director of the National Platform, Dr Anthony Coughlan, has said that Ireland should push for diplomatic solutions in the Ukraine crisis, and that little is to be gained from engaging in another Cold War.
The well-known author and campaigner says that the current Ukrainian crisis has its roots in the “US-sponsored and EU-backed coup against the legitimate government of that country in 2014.”
“This sought to shift a State that is divided between Ukrainian-speakers and Russian-speakers away from Russia’s sphere of influence towards NATO, the EU and the so-called “West,” he says.
He said that “the concept of spheres of influence is not “imperialist” or old-fashioned. It is based on the facts of geography and history and is relevant to every country’s security. The Munroe doctrine warns non-American States to keep out militarily from America’s sphere of influence in South and Central America. Washington objected to Russian missiles being placed next door to it in Cuba in 1962, whereas Vladimir Putin is supposed to find NATO-supplied weapons acceptable in Ukraine today and to be indifferent to what alliances Ukraine may enter into.”
He accused actors in the EU and Ireland of “seeking to launch a new Cold War with Russia”.
Many commentators object to the description of the ousting of the pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 as a coup, pointing out that he was famously corrupt and used his position of power to fleece the public purse. However, the 2010 election which saw him take power was held to be reasonably free and fair by international observers.
Yanukovych was opposed to signing trade and politcial integration agreements with the EU, and, with the Ukrainian economy in crisis, public anger erupted and continuous large-scale protests and rioting caused the Ukranian President to flee the capital. The EU welcomed the establishment of the new government.
Dr Coughlan argues that the Western allies have long been antagonistic to Russia, and that NATO had previously given assurances that it would not expand into Eastern Europe. Instead of following the lead of what he called “cold war hawks”, he advised that “the Irish Government advocate for the necessary realistic diplomatic solutions”.
“That would encourage the USA to withdraw from Europe after seventy-five years, wind up its six hundred or so foreign bases and concentrate instead on dealing with the manifold problems of the American continent, leaving the problems of Europe and Asia to the Europeans and Asiatics,” he wrote in a open letter this week.
“That however is the last thing the Cold War hawks in Washington want, as is shown by their refusal to meet Russia’s valid concerns in this crisis,” he said. “That is the real game that is being played by the USA and the EU: to encourage a new Cold War with Russia, to take no account of Russia’s legitimate security concerns and give America an excuse to keep its military forces in Europe for another generation, to the endless benefit of the US/EU military-industrial complex.”
Supporting a war, he said, “keeps the Western military-industrial complex happy that arms orders will keep rolling in. It prevents a Russian-German coming together that would encourage peace and prosperity throughout the Eurasian land mass based on trade and friendly exchanges, using the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to the full.”
However, critics of Russia counter that the war was began when Putin ordered an invasion of the Ukraine, a move which has been widely condemned.
Dr Coughlan, who is best known for his work with Raymond Crotty in ensuring that the people be consulted by referendum on EU integration, lectured on social policy in TCD for almost 40 years. He has long been a critic of what he sees as the militarisation of the European Union.
“Instead of aligning ourselves with the EU and seeking to “punish” Russia, a sensible course that was really in Ireland’s interest would be to distance ourselves as much as possible from EU positions rather than, as Messrs Martin and Coveney are currently doing, rushing to condemn this or that. Most of the smaller EU States seem to be saying far less than our armchair warriors are,” he wrote.
“The UN Secretary-General states that if the army of one country enters the territory of another without the latter’s permission it is not a peacekeeping force. He is right of course. But when did we hear a UN Secretary-General make such a statement when “the West”, led by America, made illegal wars/attacks on Yugoslavia/Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya? His predecessors were silent then,” he said.