Hemispheres
BERLIN/MOSCOW (Own report) - The EU should turn away from the USA and "convert to the East" in alliance with Russia. This is being demanded by a publicist in one of Germany's leading newspapers. Europe "is wrong, to think that it is part of the western world," explains the author basing himself on old ideologues of German "geopolitics." In fact, Germany belongs to the "Eurasian energy realm" and must realize that the cooperation with the United States is based on a "false orientation." Germany, "a country in mid-western Eurasia," is "not a galley on the "Transatlantic Ocean" says the article published over the weekend in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The journal itself is anchored in the western oriented spectrum of the German establishment, but evidently finds that the time has come to use hard anti-American invectives in public debate. This was caused by long term transformations in German economic expansion, which, to a growing degree, are oriented eastward and aimed particularly at Russian energy resources. The "Eurasian" debate is drawing formerly tabooed rightwing extremist ideologues into the focus of public discussion.
Bulged Over
According to the article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper, Germany and the EU's ties to the west are based on a "false orientation". Europe "is looking (...) to the other side of the Atlantic and cutting itself off from the Eurasian landmass" the author writes.[1] But in reality, Europe belongs "to the eastern hemisphere." Even though "since 1947, the western hemisphere" bulged over "onto the European part of the 'free world'," Europe had still always remained "clearly separated from the real American west, even during the cold war." With the end of the confrontation between the two systems, sweeping away the antagonistic political contradictions between Eastern and Western Europe, the "question of Eurasia's geopolitical alignment" has taken on new relevance.
Greater Realm Organization
To illustrate his allegations, the author of this prominently placed text, draws upon old ideologues of German "Geopolitics" as well as tabooed ideologues of the extreme right. Already in his day, "Karl Haushofer, founder of the geopolitical school in Germany, recommended a continental policy extending from Europe to Eastern Asia," the article says.[2] In the 1920s and 30s, Haushofer had contributed to the Nazis and his geopolitical writings created important foundations for Nazi expansion. Today, according to the author, "Alexander Dugin, leader of the Eurasian Movement, is working meticulously on a greater realm organization spanning from Cádiz to Vladivostok." Dugin is considered one of the leading extreme right ideologues in Russia. His "Eurasian" concepts are attentively studied by the German extreme right.[3] In Russia, Dugin's work, "Foundations of Geopolitics" has risen in importance "to the rank of textbook for future General Staff officers," writes the author, while recommending a "Pax Eurasiatica," as Dugin had proposed, making allusion to the German constitutional jurist, Carl Schmitt. Schmitt, like Karl Haushofer was a precursor of Nazi fascism.
Ethnic Mystic
As judged by the author, "the Eurasian greater realm theory captures the geopolitical development of the continent better than the EU's stale confederation/federation discussion."[4] He sees the "stimulation of the continent through an energy arterial system" - namely the oil and gas pipelines from Russia - is the decisive stabilization factor. "Unlike the apolitical commodity exchange" characterizing Transatlantic economic relations, the flow of energy is already of a political nature" according to the text, drawing upon mystical ethnic categories. "A pipeline brings warmth and movement into the communal life joining peoples, their transfer says more about friendships than the ratifications and replications of a constitutional certificate." "Energy" alone can produce "closeness and warmth" - "democracy and enlightenment" cannot.
Galleys
"Russia is located at the centre of the Eurasian energy realm, in the centre of the network spun through friendship," the author writes, pleading for an alliance between Germany and the "energy centre" Moscow. He discussed transatlantic concepts based on the Nabucco Pipeline due to transport natural gas from Central Asia to the West, bypassing Russian territory. The pipeline is named after Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco" opera which focused on the quest for liberation from Babylonian imprisonment - a polemic aimed at the EU's dependence on Russian energy supply. The author in the Frankfurter Allgemeine is turning this polemic against the USA: Nabucco has been "named after the opera with which Giuseppe Verdi started his 'galley years' as a slave of the cultural industry." Germany, he concludes, "is not a galley in the Transatlantic Ocean."[5]
Shifting Weights
In publishing this polemic plea for an alliance with Russia, the Frankfurter Allgemeine is taking into account long-term transformations in German economic expansion. The close economic alliance with the USA had characterized the years of the confrontation between the two systems. Since the upheavals between 1989 and 1991, German business has been eastward oriented to a growing degree. Today, the trade volume between Germany and Eastern Europe is reaching 307 billion Euros annually, constituting 17 percent of German foreign trade, while the German-US trade volume sank to 117,5 billion Euros, a mere 6,5 percent.[6] Germany has its eyes particularly focused on Russian energy resources, to which German companies have obtained direct access in the meantime.[7] Since some time, Berlin is using again this shift in economic weights for its traditional see saw policy between East and West (german-foreign-policy.com reported [8]). And anti-American forces are openly proposing an alliance with Russia.
Limited Sovereignty
Using the concept of Alexander Dugin's "Pax Eurasiatica," which formulates the rules for an "extended Eurasian realm," the article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine is illustrating the consequences for the EU.[9] According to the text, "if every nation would maintain its right to self-determination, it could arbitrarily flirt with any hegemon foreign to the realm, to extract itself from this peaceful order." This is referring, for example, to attempts by Poland and the Czech Republic to secure insurance, through alliances with the USA, against possible threats emanating from Germany and Russia. Concerning such efforts and making reference to the "Pax Eurasiatica", the Frankfurter Allgemeine writes, "the hegemon forbids interventions from 'foreigners to the realm' and limits the sovereignty of the other nations in the greater realm."
Please read also Visions of Dominion.
[1], [2] Dimitrios Kisoudis: Ach, Eurasien! Europa irrt, wenn es sich für einen Teil der westlichen Welt hält. Für seine Ostbindung sorgt der Energiefluss aus Russland; Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung 25.10.2009
[3] see also Europa der Rechtsextremisten and German Settlements in the East
[4], [5] Dimitrios Kisoudis: Ach, Eurasien! Europa irrt, wenn es sich für einen Teil der westlichen Welt hält. Für seine Ostbindung sorgt der Energiefluss aus Russland; Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung 25.10.2009
[6] see also The Berlin-Moscow Economic Axis (II)
[7] see also Energiekraken, 4,500 Kilometers Around Berlin and Eurasien
[8] see also Great Power Status and Strategic Concepts (II)
[9] Dimitrios Kisoudis: Ach, Eurasien! Europa irrt, wenn es sich für einen Teil der westlichen Welt hält. Für seine Ostbindung sorgt der Energiefluss aus Russland; Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung 25.10.2009
