Once upon a time my idealism was so strong I fundraised to stop Contra Aid over the telephone at age 30. I got the position by luck. It was two blocks from my sublet in the Mission District of San Francisco. I had been reading at that time books on international development and U.S. policy in Latin America. I was also reading Erasmus. Why I Was reading Erasmus is his essay The Complaint of Peace. I copied quotes from it and hand wrote one or two on my fundraising missives when people did not provide the credit card. I hoped for two things: one the words would impact the reader. Two the strangeness and novelty of this mad idealism would move the donor to give. I do not know if it did really, I like to think so since I was kept on and encouraged to participate in ongoing strategy meetings until the organization collapsed when Democrats decided military humanitarian aid for Contras was the best step to stopping Contra funding.
In any case thinking about the moment in time then and now I wish to point out Erasmus was quite right in having Peace complain.
“If the lower orders of the people were to act in this manner [hurting their brethren in war], some apology might be found in their supposed ignorance; if very young men were to act in this manner, the inexperience of youth might be pleaded in extenuation; if the poor laity only were concerned, the frailty of the agents might lessen the atrocity of the action: but the very reverse of this is the truth. The seeds of war are chiefly sown by those very people whose wisdom and moderation, characteristic of their rank and station, ought to compose and assuage the impetuous passions of the people.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/erasmus-the-complaint-of-peace
Much to unpack and a lot to consider vis a vis the Ukrainian conflict. In the first place governments who are tyrannical at home are displeased the Post-Cold War order is brutal as well. Ok. A kinder and gentler tyranny is preferred. One that is more in keeping with traditional governance by local elites that are not constrained by noble ideas. In saying this I am not suggesting the Atlantic Imperium is constrained by noble ideas only that unlike China the law once upon a time was a bit of a brake on ambition. It may still be so today in the West since as yet no formal dictatorship has arisen. Informal networks - crime gangs-exist and hold power but importantly these are still rooted in law no matter how suborned. In China Xi is judge, jury, and executioner. And Chinese law permits it.
With Covid being international and the idea of depopulation of 80% of humanity to save Earth agreed upon the arguments of the Great Powers come down to Que es mas macho. A world where China was key and not the Atlanticists would be different but not superior as any African state knows.
If we had the magic lamp of Aladdin and made one wish as Galeano wrote, asking the Genii to bring back our mother we would be told by the Genii this could not be done and given that, we ask for world peace and the Genii then asks us about our mother once more.
Then the question must and again is rarely raised about Transnational policy. War is politics by brutal means. Nation states are obliged in the International State System to have allies lest they get eaten alive by the strong. Abolition of the International State System by world government is unspoken but generally an objective of Transnational elites. All Transnational elites are supporting Covid vaccination. As are all nation states, China especially.