Dear Africa - In War Prepare For Peace, In Peace Prepare For War
Sun Tzu, the Chinese global governance scholar and military strategist wrote in his book the Art of War that, ‘in peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace.’ This statement has remained classical for centuries, since Sun Tzu made it in 400 BC. The evidence of its practical persistence influenced very many other governance scholars in the subsequent times to think in terms of prioritizing organized response to disaster as a very basic obligation to be given attention by those involved in leadership and management of global governance systems.
For example, Thucydides was under the influence of Sun Tzu’s philosophy when he argued in his History of Peloponnesian War that, ‘those who are unprepared always are cowardly in trepidation when they hear of war, but the prepared ones salivate for the fruits of war.’ It was also the same dint of philosophy which inspired Nicollo Machiavelli to observe that , ‘in governance you are obliged to be as brave as a lion, while at the same time you remain very shrewd, cunning and sly as a fox to foresee the impeding traps. Heraclitus was also influenced by Sun Tzu to argue that, ‘war is the father of all, and the king of all.’ Under the same notch, Leon Trotsky observed that, ‘even if you are not looking for war, but war is ever looking for you. ‘ Just the same way the German governance strategist and war scholar, Carl Von Clausewitz adapted Sun Tzu’s philosophy to argue out in his book on War that war is another way of extending economic and political diplomacy.
After the second world war the European global governance scholars subscribing to the school of cosmopolitanism came up with a popular philosophy that, ‘wars make nations, then nations make wars, strong states are sired by a history of strong wars.’ Thus, by logic of extension we can also observe that hard times produce hard corporations for hard corporations to produce hard times.
The above rudiments from the world of global governance are a collection which blend into a clear testimony for us to learn that humanity and war are inseparable. The above rudiments are conceptual pedestals on which we can stand and project with accuracy that we are going to live with war. This is why it is reasonable to buy some information in the words of the American Foreign Policy Minster that, the current war in Ukraine is going to be there for along time. It is a signal warning for the managers of the state affairs in Africa to question themselves if at all they can be able to protect the African air-space in case Russia or any other disingenuous military heavy weight choses to attack ,capture and occupy the African sky.
Lessons from the current Russia’s war on Ukraine are fill every perspective of corporate and state management, but most towering above others is that that the leadership in Ukraine knew long time ago that soon or later Russia will come to attack it. But Ukraine did not put any serious defensive mechanisms in place to counter Russia’s military offence. Ukraine has only been displaying some diplomatic love affairs or diplomatic flirtations with America. This is also a point at which one can reverse the thinking to argue that America and North Atlantic Treaty organization (NATO) have been misleading Ukraine on how to deal with Russia when it comes to matters of international security. This argument gets supports from the current evidence of how Ukraine has responded with sorriest level of unpreparedness to Russia’s military invasion. It has been so sorry that in the mid of intense attack by Russia it is when Ukraine is calling for support and donation of weapons to support its call for ‘total war’ which involves use of all citizens as a counter strategy to Russia. But a question is how can citizens that have not gone through any military training use the outdated Soviet era weapons sympathetically donated by Germany to counter the properly trained hyperbolic military armed with long range high precision ballistic missiles like the one being used by Russia in Ukraine ?
Another compulsory lesson to be learned from war on Ukraine is the one based on the definition of war by Von Clausewitz as quoted by Baylis (2016) in his book Globalization of world politics that, War is sober, systematic, well organized, well planned and risk adjusted violence perpetrated by one state , community or intranational organization unto another to manipulate the opponent to submit to the offender’s interests of power, security and survival’. Without any doubt objective observation of diplomatic psychology often displayed by Vladmir Putin at any time has always revealed that he has been concerned with power, security and survival of Russia. These are three minimum and basic attributes of anarchy that enables any country to be respected on the global stage. Study of practical diplomacy dictates that in such like circumstances there was no any other way of diplomatic behavior or path Vladmir Putin could chose in relation to NATO’s military expansionist tendencies towards Eastern Europe where Ukraine has been angling itself as a NATO Stronghold with overt intentions to undermine and finally impeach power, survival and security of Russia.
Most importantly for Africa and any other lover of nuances from the study of war-history is a lesson to be derived from historical facts that all world wars have been started in Europe, the first in France by Napoleon Bonaparte though diminutively described by skeptical scholars as the French Revolution but it was war that affected more than two continents , the second transcontinental war began in Sarajevo through the incidence of assassinating Archduke Ferdinand, and then third global war by Adolf Hitler’s attack on Poland . It is also a very critical historical fact which cannot be ignored to note that the Jewish question has been always a center-piece of all major world wars, especially in the second world war where Hitler’s Nazism was focused on de-jeweshifying Europe just as it is in the current world-wide Islamic terrorist wars that are focusing on destroying the Jewish state of Israel. Unfortunately, it is also a current fact that a Jew is at the center of Russia’s War on Ukraine, President Serenesky of Ukraine is Jew who speaks Russian. This is a signal warning which is qualitative enough in the implications that the Russian war on Ukraine will soon get to global status . Ideally, most of the wars that involve Jews are usually persistent and often tend to affect the entire world. This is a historical experience that have also been given scientific justification by experienced observers and writers like Paul of Tarsus in his Biblical epistle or letter to the Hebrews, Shakespeare in Macbeth, Karl Marx in his epistolary work on the Jewish Question published as letter to Editor of the New York Times , and also by Andrew Hitchcox in his seminal work on Jewish factor in global security published as novel under the title the Synagogue of Satan which shares the same tempo, quality and texture of historical research on Jewish influence on the world with the discussions by Ali A. Mazrui in the Cultural Forces on World Politics.
These historical facts are source of logic to help in deciphering the cryptic fiber in Vladmir Putin’s mind about his missions in Ukraine; to chase America out of Europe and remove Jews from European politics by dethroning Serenesky out of Ukrainian Presidency .These are the inner feelings of Putin which he has presented to the public by calling them as de-Nazifying Ukraine. The truth is that Putin is only using a shrewd and cunning technique to hide his intentions by dressing them in a historically beatified cloak through some allegorical language in the name of de-Nazifying Ukraine when his primary intention de-Jeweshifying Ukraine.
Strategic options to be followed by managers of state affairs at global stage are many and diverse, those that rocks with conscience range from waiting for the war in Ukraine to end naturally after long time through wear and tear of the war machinery, or having Ukraine to swallow her pride by surrendering her vulnerable sovereignty so that she becomes part of Russia or having the world to focus on humanitarian support of war victims in Ukraine as Ukraine keeps on using guerrilla tactics resisting Russia’s occupation the way Poland resisted Soviet Occupation in the last century . In contrast, the risky option is the one currently being followed by NATO to challenge Russia by calling for the United military machinery from North America, Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Japan to challenge Russia in Ukraine. However, objective use of military psychology will easily rule out this approach under the light of facts that even though Countries like China, Irag, Afghanistan, Syria, Belorussia, China, North Korea and France may be tempted to help Russia to defeat America’s NATO in the Ukrainian war, but still it is palpable that Vladmir Putin is a very intelligent person, a neurotic personality as well as mega-sized sadist who can chose to drop a weapon of mass destruction like a nuclear bomb other than conceding defeat to American supported NATO . And it is so saddening that, this kind of war dimension will heavily cost ecologically vulnerable countries in the Global South, especially in Africa and Asia.
Above all else, Africa and other Global South Countries are equally obliged to learn the lesson of selective humanity perpetrated by European countries when evacuating civilians from Ukraine. There is evident discrimination against people of color that has even already sparked outcry now trending on social media under the hashtag #AfricansinUkraine. Wafaa Albadry recently wrote in the Deutsch Welle to fault European solidarity against Russia in Ukraine for not being inclusive . In the article, it was observed that in addition to horrendous night-mare of continued heavy artillery action on civilians in Ukraine , there is an extra nightmare for black people and other people of color who are denied access to safety by Ukrainians and other Europeans carrying out evacuation operations in Ukraine. Many people of color from Africa, India, the Middle East and other regions who lived in Ukraine have been evidently denied the same welcome that is bestowed on Ukrainians by the neighboring European countries that are expected to provide safety for refugees .
Even inside Ukraine many black people have been denied access to trains or buses that are designated to move refugees in Ukraine to safety. It is also reported by very many online media that those black people that forced themselves into the trains or chose to walk on foot to arrive at the borders , they are still pushed back to Ukraine by the Polish border authorities . And this is not a negligible story, it is a story of fateful experience of over 76,000 international students studying in Ukraine where , over 25% come from India and African countries, including Nigeria, Morocco, and Egypt not mentioning the workers and migrants who, too, needed to find a safe place. Hence, it is the key motif of this article to point out that let this be the time for the world society to salute the social media for its unwavering watch-dog duties executed by spreading videos of Africans in Ukraine pleading for help before the discrimination machinery of inhuman border authorities pointing weapons at them to go back to unsafe Ukraine. This is a positive lesson enough for Africans to prepare for peace during this time of war of Russia on Ukraine.
Alexander Opicho is an essayist, poet, culture Critic and Corporate Trainer. He writes from Nairobi,Kenya