Three years ago, French President Emmanuel Macron, who had just attended the G7 summit, warned that the West was experiencing the end of hegemony, NATO was experiencing "brain death", the United States was no longer worth relying on, and it was time for Europe to rely on itself.
Now, 3 years later, whether it is the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom, or the global epidemic raging, the United States, Britain, France and Germany have successively become the "epicenters" of the epidemic, all of them no longer highlight the decline and dimming of Western hegemony.
On January 20, two major events occurred in the world that deserve attention, and behind each of them, they reflected the end of western hegemony.
First, hegemonism is unpopular! Finland refuses to join NATO.
A few days ago, US Secretary of State Blinken "hinted" in an interview with US media that Finland intends to join NATO, and declared that nato's door is open, and if countries want to join, the United States will discuss this matter with allies.
But on the 20th, Finnish Prime Minister Marin said that Finland does not intend to join NATO in the near future, at least during her tenure as prime minister, Finland is "extremely unlikely" to apply for NATO membership.
Simply put, it is that the flowers fall intentionally, and the flowing water is merciless. The United States was interested in recruiting Finland, but Finland did not care.
In fact, this is not the first time the United States has recently co-opted Finland.
On January 18, Biden took the initiative to call Finnish President Niinistö to talk about the so-called "importance of Finland's close defense partnership with the United States and NATO", knowing the reason and moving with emotion, with the intention of persuading Finland to join NATO.
Earlier, in mid-December, presidents of the United States and Finland also held a dialogue and similarly hinted at joining NATO.
I have to say that counting Biden's 2 phone calls and Blinken's 1 public hint, the United States can indeed be called "three gu maolu" in the matter of "pulling Finland into NATO".
So what makes the Biden administration so "important" to Finland?
There are 3 main reasons for it.
1, Finland is strategically strategically located.
Although Finland, the seventh largest country in Europe, has an area of only about 338,000 square kilometers, it is strategically located, bordering Norway to the north, Sweden to the northwest, the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland to the south, Russia to the east, and Russia with a border of 1,340 kilometers.
If nothing else, the mere proximity to Russia and the lengthy border with Russia is enough to make the United States and Europe covet.
Imagine that once Finland joins NATO, then the United States, Britain and other countries can do a lot of things with these 1340 kilometers of borders, and Russia will double the pressure.
In addition, one-third of Finland's land is in the Arctic Circle, which also has a great advantage for the United States, Europe and NATO to compete with Russia in the Arctic in the future.
2, Finland is also one of the typical rich countries in Europe, its highly industrialized, liberalized market economy, so that its per capita output far exceeds the United States, Britain, France and Germany and other established powers, higher than the average level of the European Union, not to mention.
3, Finland is not only "rich", but also very willing to "spend money", especially in the military.
It is reported that Finland's military budget accounts for about 5% of the government budget, about 2 billion euros, which is more than enough for a Country with a land area of 338,000 square kilometers and a standing armed force of just over 40,000 people.
How could the United States not have an idea in the face of such a strategically located Finland, which has both money and is willing to spend money?
Of course, it is precisely because of these factors that Finland has avoided joining NATO.
On the one hand, if Finland joins NATO, it is likely to offend Russia and even get involved in the conflict between the United States and Russia; on the other hand, if Finland joins NATO, it may also be like Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, and be "extorted" by the United States on the grounds of military expenditure, which is completely more than worth the loss.
In addition, in order to exert pressure on Russia, the United States actually took the initiative to attract Finland to join NATO three times, and finally ended up with a "closed door soup", which is not the best embodiment of the decline of "American hegemony"?
In other words, if the United States is still strong and NATO is still strong, will Finland openly refuse to be co-opted by the White House?
After all, the United States is no longer the United States it was, NATO is no longer strong, and it has no attraction for Finland.
Next, let's talk about The Russia-Iran alliance to "de-dollarize" and challenge the hegemony of the dollar.
On the 20th, Iranian President Lehi arrived in Moscow and met with Putin, and the two sides will focus on cooperation in the economic, trade and military fields.
Among them, in the Economic and Trade of Russia and Iran, Putin mentioned that even in the context of the global epidemic, the total trade between Russia and Iran has increased by 38%.
Lehi said that Iran hopes to maintain a stable and comprehensive relationship with Russia, and said that Russia and Iran can form a synergy effect in cooperation to better resist Western pressure.
At the same time, Iran also submitted a draft 20-year strategic cooperation agreement to Russia.
Although neither Russia nor Iran explicitly mentioned the word "de-dollarization" during this meeting, the words are filled with the meaning of "de-dollarization and ending dollar hegemony".
First, in the context of the us sanctions, the total trade between Russia and Iran has increased by 38%, and the settlement mechanism used by the two countries will certainly not be the US dollar.
Among them, President Lech's "joint resistance to Western pressure" actually refers to the economic sanctions imposed by the White House based on the hegemony of the US dollar.
In addition, the two sides will also discuss a 20-year strategic cooperation agreement, which means that Russia and Iran will expand economic, trade, and military cooperation in the future, and will not use the US dollar.
As a result, the liquidity of the dollar will be greatly reduced.
Second, Russia and Iran are both big oil exporters, and both sides are now gradually abandoning the use of dollars when exporting oil to foreign countries.
This means that once countries around the world buy oil with Russia and Iran, the liquidity and use of the US dollar will also be greatly reduced.
Don't forget, one of the main foundations of dollar hegemony is the "oil-dollar" bundling system. Once the system collapses, then waiting for the dollar hegemony will be a severe blow.
Don't forget that after Biden took office, the reason why the United States changed its attitude, opened negotiations with the Iranian nuclear agreement, and also proposed that it could lift the ban on oil exports to Iran, is not to return to the Iranian nuclear agreement, but to facilitate Iran's continued use of dollars and enhance liquidity when exporting oil to the outside world.
In the final analysis, although the dollar has the attribute of "globalization", as long as you do not use it, I do not use it, oil, gold and other commodities are "decoupled" from the dollar, and the dollar hegemony will naturally collapse.
In addition, in addition to Russia and Iran, Britain, France, Germany, and the European Union have also increased the use of the euro and the pound sterling in foreign trade, and even India has begun to use the rupee in economic and military cooperation with Russia.
It can be seen that de-dollarization has become an international trend, and a campaign to "encircle and suppress" the hegemony of the dollar has quietly begun.
Finally, let's take a few personal comments.
With the continuous development of the times and the gradual rise of various countries, the current world is no longer the old world where hegemonism can flourish.
At the beginning, with the dividends brought by the two industrial revolutions, the United States and Europe and other countries took the lead in establishing an industrialization system, and took this as the basis to plunder global interests, and achieved the so-called "Western hegemony".
But now, the dividends of the Industrial Revolution have long been exhausted by the West, and industrialization is no longer the exclusive property of the West, and the decline and end of Western hegemony has become an indisputable fact. This has nothing to do with the impact of the epidemic, geopolitics and other factors, but the inevitable trend of the world's development process.
The era when Western hegemony dominated the world is doomed to never return! What is new will arrive is a new multipolar and pluralistic world.