The Russian Enigma

And when brought altogether and converged with one another, the aforementioned “master trends” of our day and age ultimately lead to a basic shift in the global balance of power in favor of the East, particularly in favor of Russia and China. What then compounds the enigma or the dilemma or challenge of the balance of power is the enigma or dilemma or challenge of Russia. To borrow from Kissinger: “Everything about Russia – its absolutism, its size, its globe-spanning ambitions and insecurities – stood as an implicit challenge to the traditional European concept of international order built on equilibrium and restraint.” 

Kissinger added: “Russia’s position in and toward Europe had long been ambiguous.” Russia is also the most powerful country in Europe. For the current order, the challenge has been “to welcome Russia into the international order without being crushed by its embrace.” In a sense, the dilemma of the balance of power is the dilemma of Russia. The Russian “enigma” is at the heart of the balance of power dispute between East and West today. What polarizes the international structure and the international community is the Russian “enigma” which happens to be the main source of the balance of power conflict between East and West. To borrow from C. Wright Mills: “By their existence and policies, such hegemony powers as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. define new ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ situations within and between nations.” 

To put it simply, international society is a mess as a result of the polarization which has occurred due to the long-standing and historic balance of power conflict between Washington and Moscow. As Mills wrote: 

“The ‘United Nations’ are disunited and engaged in ‘cold war.’ The Eastern bloc uses the legal veto and the Western bloc the de facto veto by majority vote; and some powers, great and small, remain outside the ‘United Nations.’ There is no undivided court of ‘world opinion,’ and in our time, long before a shooting war begins, the propaganda and prestige battles are underway to put the potential enemy in the wrong, to win the sympathy of potential allies, to secure at least benevolent neutrality from the rest. Since industrial nations have become literate, and ever larger masses of people have come into the political order – regardless of constitution – an increasing array of values and institutions has been used for political purposes.” 

Nor is the East really dependent on the West, as is perhaps assumed in Western society. To borrow from Mills: “The Soviet orbit is not necessarily economically dependent upon outside resources. It contains all the vital raw materials – food, fiber, metal, and oil. And it can – as the history of Russia’s industrial development has shown – develop its own resources.” And the stakes are extremely high in this balance of power conflict spurred on in large part by Russia. In fact, the stakes are almost fully if not fully existential in nature. To borrow from Mills yet again: “Militarily, economically, and politically, there is going on a struggle for the world, of which there is a portentous psychological meaning: We witness and participate in an historic contest which will decide what types of men and women will flourish on the earth.” 

Western civilization as a whole can be overturned by Russia and China because it has in fact happened before, in the sense that Western civilization overturned itself during the course of the ‘World Wars’ of the 20th century. As Kissinger noted:  

“Reflecting on what might have occurred in alternative historical scenarios is usually a futile exercise. But the war that overturned Western civilization had no inevitable necessity. It arose from a series of miscalculations made by serious leaders who did not understand the consequences of their planning, and a final maelstrom triggered by a terrorist attack occurring in a year generally believed to be a tranquil period. In the end, the military planning ran away with diplomacy. It is a lesson subsequent generations must not forget.” 

Ultimately, what is required of the West in this balance of power conflict with Russia and China are the basic war aims of the East. In terms of these basic war aims, Arendt wrote: “Ultimately and short of catastrophe, the position of the West will depend upon its understanding of revolution. And revolution involves both liberation from necessity so that men may walk in dignity and the constitution of a body politic that may permit them to act in freedom.” And given what is required, it is only inevitable that some kind of conflict and misunderstanding will arise between East and West, given that for the Western mind, it is perhaps impossible to know what these Eastern axioms or principles of “freedom” and “revolution” can truly and actually mean and suggest. Ultimately, it is all ambiguous and vague for the Western mind. Hence, the enigma and mystery.