The End of the Post-World War Two Rules-Based Liberal International Order

Russia's Suspension of the New START Treaty and China's plan to provide overt lethal military aid to Russia to help it win the war in Ukraine signal the beginning of a new world order

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson warning that a US war with the Sino-Russian alliance could lead to the destruction of the West on his February 20, 2023 episode

February 27th Update: In an interview on Face the Nation, former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Race made a startling revelation when she stated, “Xi Jinping…according to our intelligence, apparently, he's even considering getting in (the war) on the side of the Russians…I think we have to recognize that the Chinese-Russian relationship is perhaps more strategic than many of us had thought, that it really is a relationship that is aimed at the heart of U.S. power in the world.”

February 25th Update: According to the Wall Street Journal. China is planning to provide Russia with hundreds of artillery systems and combat drones to help Russia force Ukraine to capitulate following its massive winter/spring offensive.

Conflicting US-Russian Narratives Justifying War in Ukraine

During his speech to the Russian Federation Council on the eve of Russia’s much anticipated massive winter offensive, which most military analysts are predicting will occur by February 24^th, which is the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for starting the war. He claimed western-armed Ukraine was planning a new offensive to retake control of the Donbass separatist republics early last year and stated that he was compelled to send Russian military forces into Ukraine early last year to be followed by recapturing Crimea to try to prevent them from attacking ethnic Russians living in these territories. Putin also stated he ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine in response to continuing U.S. and NATO attempts to unilaterally revise the international order that was agreed to at Yalta and Potsdam in which the Western powers granted Russia a sphere of influence, not merely over the former Soviet Union, but over the eastern half of Europe as well. He stated that all US actions since the war began in seeking to collapse and strategically defeat Russia proved that the US had been using Ukraine as a pawn to threaten, fight and seriously weaken Russia all along.

President Joe Biden responded to Putin’s speech by giving a speech in Warsaw earlier today declaring that the U.S. and its NATO allies were fighting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine in defense of global democracy while administration officials continue to declare that the US must fight its proxy war in Ukraine against Russia in defense of the rules-based liberal international order which was established at the end of the Second World War. Thus, the war in Ukraine has become a war of conflicting narratives. Biden’s decision to give his speech in Poland is significant given that, other than Ukraine, the Polish government has been the most enthusiastic about the prospects of fighting a direct war with Russia and the fact that it is the only country in the world that has sent combat troops to fight Russia in Ukraine reportedly losing 1,200 KIA as of November 2022. During his speech, he committed to continue supporting Ukraine to fight NATO’s proxy war against Russia in perpetuity unnecessarily prolonging the deaths and destruction in Ukraine with no achievable ends aside from weakening Russia militarily over a period of many years.