Empire first: Trump the Second wants ‘economic colonisation of Ukraine’
Britain’s Telegraph newspaper has an extraordinary piece by its world economy editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, on Donald Trump’s Empire First-ism.
America’s designs on Ukraine are totally off the wall, according to the report. The paper, which has seen a leaked US draft contract for Ukraine, describes its remarkable range and scale. Not only does it demand £400 billion in Ukraine’s minerals, it apparently also covers ports, other infrastructure and oil and gas. According to Mr Evans-Pritchard, the proposals amount to “the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity”. It would require Ukraine to give up a bigger share of its GDP than the reparations imposed on Germany at Versailles.
That’s the proposal from the so-called leader of the free world for another member of the international community? In 2025?
In 1965, Ghanaian political theorist and prime minister Kwame Nkrumah wrote a book titled Neo-Colonialism.
It described modern neo-colonialism as “imperialism in its final and perhaps its most dangerous stage”. A country doesn’t strictly become “colonial territory”, say like Egypt in the 19th century, but appears to have “sovereignty” and independence, he wrote. In reality however, it is colonised because “its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside”.
He described the methods and form of this direction. The most common after the formal end of the imperial age is that “non-viable” states are “compelled to sell their primary products at prices dictated by the developed nations and buy their manufactured goods at the prices fixed by them.”
He noted that neo-colonialism is based upon the principle of ensuring that non-viable states “are incapable of independent development”. In Nkrumah’s formulation, the non-viable state must rely upon their former imperial power “for defence and even internal security. Their economic and financial systems are linked, as in colonial days, with those of the former colonial ruler”.
In this context, how to interpret America’s reported ask of Ukraine? The US is not, of course, Ukraine’s “former imperial power”. It’s fair to say, however, that it appears to be bidding to assume a new avataar altogether for the 21st century.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
