Robert Kagan, der führende politische Kopf der Neocons und John McCains aussenpolitischer Berater, erkennt in der russischen Aggression gegen Georgien einen historischen Einschnitt von der Dimension der Wende von ’89.
Rußland – genauer gesagt Putin – vetrete mit unverhohlener Brutalität seine geopolitischen Interessen, und darin zeige sich die „offizielle Wiederkehr der Geschichte im Stil des 19. Jahrhunderts“:
„Diplomats in Europe and Washington believe Saakashvili made a mistake by sending troops to South Ossetia last week. Perhaps. But his truly monumental mistake was to be president of a small, mostly democratic and adamantly pro-Western nation on the border of Putin’s Russia.
Historians will come to view Aug. 8, 2008, as a turning point no less significant than Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell. Russia’s attack on sovereign Georgian territory marked the official return of history, indeed to an almost 19th-century style of great-power competition, complete with virulent nationalisms, battles for resources, struggles over spheres of influence and territory, and even — though it shocks our 21st-century sensibilities — the use of military power to obtain geopolitical objectives. Yes, we will continue to have globalization, economic interdependence, the European Union and other efforts to build a more perfect international order. But these will compete with and at times be overwhelmed by the harsh realities of international life that have endured since time immemorial. The next president had better be ready.“
Hier der ganze Text in der Washington Post von heute.
Praktischer Weise hat Robert Kagan soeben ein Buch veröffentlicht, das diese These vom „Return of History“ untermauert.