OPINION: The New Hitler-Stalin Pact

In the two months since he has taken office, President Donald Trump has launched a program of massive territorial expansion, demanding the US acquisition of Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, he has made it clear that under his leadership, America not only intends to withdraw the protection its forces have provided to Europe since the end of the Second World War, but will use its power to coerce Ukraine into surrender to Russia, thereby moving the Kremlin into position to attack America’s former NATO allies.

What is going on?

To best understand the method to Trump’s madness, a bit of history is in order.

During the 1930s, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany appeared to be arch enemies, espousing rival brands of totalitarian ideology, and engaging in armed combat with each other via a proxy war in Spain. Hitler openly and repeatedly stated his intentions to conquer all lands to his east, with a goal of not only exterminating its Jews, but enslaving and then doing away with its majority Slav population as well. The Soviets, alarmed at such a prospect, called for international alliance to stop the Nazis.

Then suddenly, in late August 1939, it was announced that the two dictatorships had signed a “non-aggression pact.” While publicized as a move towards peace, it immediately became clear that it was anything but that. Under the terms of the deal, the Soviets got half of Poland, the Baltic States, and a shot at Finland. The Nazis got the other half of Poland and a free hand to conquer Western Europe. Within weeks of the pact’s signing, World War II was underway.

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Oleksandr Usyk Meets Donald Trump at the White House

Ukrainian heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk recently met US President Donald Trump at the White House. A photograph of the two shaking hands inside the Oval Office was published by Margo Martin, special assistant to the president and communications advisor. While details of their private conversation remain undisclosed, Usyk has repeatedly used his global platform to appeal directly to Trump regarding Russia’s invasion, having previously urged the president to visit Ukraine in person.

I submit that we are seeing exactly the same kind of deal now, only on a much larger scale.

In the 1990s, Russian ideologist Aleksandr Dugin concocted a synthetic “Alt-Right” ideology combining tribal nationalism with fealty to Russia to replace the defunct communist movement as the Kremlin’s international fifth column. A network of parties matching this format – including the French National Front (now National Rally), the German AfD, the Trumpist MAGA movement, and similar outfits in Hungary, Austria, the UK, the Netherlands, and most other European countries – have now been launched to support this goal.

Dugin promulgated a geopolitical doctrine, known as “the Multi-Polar World” for both the Kremlin and its puppets to espouse. According to this creed, the “Unipolar World” led by the United States and its democratic allies (sometimes called “the rules-based international order) based on collective security and free trade, is unfair, and needs to be replaced by a “Multi-Polar World” in which the globe would be divided into spheres of control under the domination three great powers. Under this scheme, the United States would be awarded North America, China would get East and South Asia, and Russian would get Eurasia, “from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” The rest of the globe could provide ample ground for skirmishing to keep the diplomats and proxy warriors of the great powers suitably amused.

It is apparent that the Trump administration has embraced this concept. Not only do Trump’s moves correspond exactly to this game plan, but Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio has explicitly referred to the “Multi-Polar World” as the baseline for understanding the putative realities of the strategic future.

This is not a formula for peace. In the first place, it means death in short order to Ukraine and the Baltic States. France, Germany, and Poland appear better able to resist, but their positions in the long run are doubtful. Certainly, Germany will rearm. We are seeing that already. But where does that leave Poland, if and when the Kremlin-aligned ultranationalist AfD takes power? Much of modern Poland is situated on what was once Prussia. Cutting deals to split Poland with Russia has been a constant trope over the course of German history, and it is a near certainty that a rearmed Germany under AfD leadership would seize the opportunity to do it again.

Then we are back to 1939.

This is where Trump is leading us. The Multi-Polar World is not a formula for world peace. It is a formula for world war.

There are only two groups of people who can stop this mad plan. One is the Republicans in Congress. Unfortunately, these appear to so terrorized by the threat of a primary opponent funded by one of Trump’s bagmen that they won’t oppose Trump on anything, even his crazed trade war that is looting and destroying the savings of their constituents at a record rate. The other are the leaders of Europe’s remaining democratic powers. These need to stop posturing about hypothetical peacekeeping forcing to send to Ukraine after a non-existent peace deal is reached, and send Ukraine the arms it needs to repel the Russian invasion now.

If they don’t their countries will be the next ones on the dinner table.

The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.