The first global war now with two active fronts Ukraine and Gaza

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The world is experiencing its “First Global War.” A global war is that conflict that impacts and involves everyone, albeit the armed confrontation is limited to confrontations in specific areas and between specific warring factions, in which the globalized world participates. It is a generalized conflict in which there is no neutrality, it is a conflagration from which none of the States is excluded. It started with Russia’s invasion to Ukraine and now it has two active fronts; Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.

Following up on the features of the first and second world wars of the 20th century, a World War is the confrontation that -in the armed fight- it involves all or the great majority of nations of the world, great powers included, with generalized mobilization and a state of total war. In both a Global War and a World War, all of the nations of the world are involved, but in the Global War the armed fighting is limited to specific countries or groups in determined territories with the repercussions impacting the whole world.

Neutrality is “not taking sides and renouncing all meddling in a conflict” and apparently the globalized world seems unable to provide this option. For there to be neutrality, international law requires the “non-participation” and the “impartiality” regarding the armed conflict. The armed, direct non-participation, is a feature of the Global War, but all actors participate with other; economic, political, social, communicational, and international, actions.

The escalation of the First Global War, Russia’s invasion to Ukraine, was triggered by the legitimate defense of the attacked State of Israel against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and has again made it evident the axis of worldwide confrontation is “crime against freedom” and “dictatorship against democracy.” Both fronts represent countries that had been attacked who had the obligation to defend themselves –Ukraine and Israel- fighting for their survival and freedom against an irrational aggression by non-democratic and tyrannical States controlled by perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

Gauging the way on how active fronts expand, the Global War is a “Pre-World War state” that can -simultaneously- either prevent or be the preamble of the Third World War. The pre-war state is “that phase immediately preceding the war whose levels of tension and readiness make the armed conflict possible.”

The attacks against Ukraine and against Israel have been perpetrated against all existing humanitarian and international standards by violators of human rights, operators of criminal violence, and wielders of power at the expense of the freedom of their peoples, against free, entrepreneurial, successful, and democratic nations. The nature of breaking up peace by bloody massacres make defensive wars unavoidable and the triumph of freedom that guarantees life and prosperity in Ukraine and Israel, as attacked countries, becomes inexcusable given they ensure compliance of international standards of humanity and the international order of law.

In this Global War, the groups that are confronted are clearly defined. Democracies of the world comprise the part of attacked countries fighting to restore freedom, security, and justice. The dictatorships of the world, including those para-dictatorial governments, back crimes against humanity and wars of aggression with a very long litany of pretexts and alibies to seek advantage and be granted impunity.

The factual, objective, reality shows that in Russia’s invasion to Ukraine, as well as the terrorist acts of Hamas against the humanity of Israel, dictatorships from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the para-dictatorial governments of Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and others, using different arguments, timelines, and pretexts, back the infamy, deliberately ignoring their obligations of international law. Dictatorships use the falsification of facts to disseminate made-up narratives that justify the crimes, attributing the crimes to the victims, just as how they do it in their countries where they wield power with State-terrorism and the institutionalized violation of human rights.

The block of dictatorships comprised by; China’s communist/capitalist dictatorship, the self-labeled nationalist dictatorship from Russia, the theocratic dictatorship from Iran, the familial dictatorship of North Korea, and the Castrochavist dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua all coincide in their urge to indefinitely wield power at the expense of their peoples freedom and to represent the organized crime that has taken control of their States. The block of dictatorships also has an extraordinary weakness, to get together only when there is a common enemy, thus unable to have a single, unique leadership that makes it unviable to reinstate the worldwide bipolarity of the Cold War.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas