After the First World War, that of 1914-1918, and its absurd carnage, Western man had sworn one thing to himself: never once more.
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Barely twenty years later, in 1939, the Second World War began, which would culminate in an enterprise of industrial extermination of the Jewish people.
When the Second World War was over, the Cold War immediately began, which would threaten the destiny of humanity with the threat of nuclear war.
It ended under the sign of a happy end unexpected, with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, then the disintegration, a few years later, of the Soviet empire. It gave a pretty convincing picture of what hell on earth might be, both for the Russians who were subjected to the domination of communism, and for the peoples of Eastern Europe who were subjected to the domination of the Russians.
Chine
At the end of the XXe cursed century, one would have thought that humanity would have learned a lesson from this nightmare.
She wanted to convince herself of it.
The time had apparently come for the end of History. Happy globalization. Of the dissolution of borders. From the universal market. On the replacement of the nation by the “inclusive” society. Citizen of the world, moving from one metropolis to another while always feeling at home.
But man never learns anything, and the possibility of war is inscribed as much in human nature as in the matrix of the international system.
The utopia of a world without conflicts or tensions is a view of the mind testifying above all to the desire that many have to flee reality.
For a year, the conflict in Ukraine has dispelled the last illusions of post-1989.
And for the past few days, the strange affair of the balloons floating above North America has given a more precise face to the threats that will intimately transform the lives of Westerners.
As far as we understand, even if everything remains confused, these are Chinese spy balloons.
To what extent is this a real threat for Westerners, and in the North American case, for Americans, Canadians and Quebecers?
We cannot tell.
But we can learn a first and essential lesson from this: China wants to make it known that it is no longer a minor power, nor even a middle power, and that it gives itself the same rights on the world market as the Americans.
UNITED STATES
Because the Americans, it’s no secret, spy on the whole world. They even spy on the telephone conversations of the leaders of countries with which they are allies, as we have seen in Europe in recent years. From now on, they will be spied on at home.
The clash of empires is before us. The clash of civilizations too.
It is not a question of prophesying a third world war, but of preparing for the world that is to come, by understanding in which international system we now live.
This implies that nations take their borders seriously. Let them also make the necessary military investments to defend them.
The formula remains true: if you want peace, prepare for war.
