Chuck Grassley: “Vladimir Putin and Xi often call for what they call a multipolar world. By ``multipolar world,'' these Presidents of…”

“Vladimir Putin and Xi often call for what they call a multipolar world. By ``multipolar world,'' these Presidents of Russia and China mean to criticize the post-Cold War situation with the United States as the preeminent superpower. Even some American commentators and politicians seem to agree with Putin and Xi. In some corners of American foreign policy thought, there is an implicit acceptance of the premise that large, powerful countries are entitled to a certain sphere of influence and where they can, at the same time, dominate their neighbors against the will of the people who live in those countries. The Soviet Union previously had an ideology of exporting communist revolution to other countries. The Soviet Union sought to dominate much of the Eurasian continent and to export its economic and political system to countries around the globe, either by cunning or by force. When the Berlin Wall fell and the then-Soviet Union collapsed, many previously captive nations became free to chart their own course. As a result, many of them chose free market democracy. Those countries also naturally chose to develop good relationships with the United States and what we call the West--countries of the West. Putin clearly sees this as a humiliation.…”