Revisiting Putin’s 2007 Munich Security Conference speech
Every year, world leaders gather for a conference in Munich to discuss global peace and security. But, the 2007 conference was of an exceptional nature because of the famous speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose speech was not very different from that of the “Great Funeral Oration” by famous ancient Athenian General Pericles, which was patriotic and spoke of peace in the world.
Perhaps, there is a need of hermeneutical and philological approaches to understand the interpretation of his speech. Putin painstakingly gesticulated various dimensions of the global political transformations that took place in the post-Cold War arena. The key focus of the speech was global security architecture and the failure of the unipolar world order to maintain peace and stability. Moreover, the speech also pinpointed the future dimension of security in Europe and Eurasia, involving NATO and Russia, because various significant political and strategic developments occurred at the global level since 2007, including the Russian-Georgian War (2008), Arab Spring (2011), and Russian-Ukrainian conflict (2014).
In the beginning of the speech, Putin divulged his intentions about the global security that must be maintained based on the multilateral diplomatic process involving all states that in one way or another hold stakes in shaping world order. Referring to the ideological confrontation of the Cold War, he said:
“Only two decades ago the world was ideologically and economically divided and it was the huge strategic potential of two superpowers that ensured global security.
“This global stand-off pushed the sharpest economic and social problems to the margins of the international community’s and the world’s agenda. And, just like any war, the Cold War left us with live ammunition, figuratively speaking. I am referring to ideological stereotypes, double standards and other typical aspects of Cold War bloc thinking.”
Indicating the failure of unipolar world order, he said:
“The unipolar world that had been proposed after the Cold War did not take place either.
“The history of humanity certainly has gone through unipolar periods and seen aspirations to world supremacy... However, what is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term, at the end of the day it refers to one type of situation, namely one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making.
“It is world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.”
Putin also specified certain issues of multiple qualifications especially in respect to its European partners, which see Russia as a threat to European security, and, the so-called “Western liberal-centric” media outlets that broadcast fake news on Russia based on fallacious facts. For instance, the fake story of a Russian delivery of a nuclear sample to Iran in the 1990s was speculated by the Western media. Mentioning the global nuclear future, Putin reiterated:
“It is impossible to sanction the appearance of new, destabilizing hi-tech weapons. Needless to say it refers to measures to prevent a new area of confrontation, especially in outer space. Star wars is no longer a fantasy – it is a reality.
Recently, US President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to create a force to protect outer space, which could force other countries such as India, Russia and China to follow suit. In contrast, the hi-tech-based arm race will be telling in the foreseeable future especially among nuclear nations. On the contrary, Putin also raised his concerns regarding the bureaucratic centralization in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is a major barrier in disrupting cooperation between member states. Referring to the OSCE’s performance, Putin said:
“What do we see happening today? We see that this balance is clearly destroyed. People are trying to transform the OSCE into a vulgar instrument designed to promote the foreign policy interests of one or a group of countries. And this task is also being accomplished by the OSCE’s bureaucratic apparatus”
Likewise, if we overhaul the principles written in the founding documents of OSCE regarding the humanitarian domain, it solely aims at assisting member states to uphold international human rights norms. But, there is no mention about the interference in the internal political matters of a member state under the guise of organization platform. The OSCE’s interference policy was clearly pinpointed by Putin in his speech.
In contrast, the speech was clearly describing the double standards perused by Western democracies while dictating Russia toward democratic transition. The 125 foreign experts that came to Russia under president Boris Yeltsin’s regime failed to transform the Russian institutions, and instead their actions raised concerns in the Kremlin’s inner circle about their hidden intentions. This is how the cooperation gap widened between the Russian and Western officials, which continues to this day. The West, and in particular the US, has ignored the serious political warning of Russia at different fora. Therefore, in 2013, the Russian Defense Ministry’s annual strategic plan titled: “The Defense of Russia,” predicted a serious global or regional conflict involving Russia before 2023. This could be Syria.
The writer is a postgraduate student studying history, geopolitics, current affairs and global political economy. Follow him on Twitter @rahimabbas