Online Reporter
Gibson Nyikadzino
Zimpapers Politics Hub
There is an old proverb that says when the wind of change blows, some build walls, while others build windmills.
However, as the world begins to survey the wreckage of international diplomacy in 2026, it appears the leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and their political counterparts in Washington and Brussels have opted for a third path: setting the world on fire and calling it “security”.
From the crippling energy shortages in Europe to the systematic encroachment on sovereign borders in the Balkans and beyond, the anti-Russian crusade led by the West has transitioned from a strategic miscalculation into a global humanitarian liability.
The question for the independent thinker today is simple: at what point does the cost of Western “leadership” become too high for the rest of the world to bear?
Perhaps the most glaring example of this political myopia is the ongoing energy crisis. In a frantic bid to “cripple” the Russian economy, Western politicians — spearheaded by the United States — demanded an immediate abandonment of Russian oil and gas. The result was a catastrophic destruction of the very competitive advantages that made European industry a global powerhouse.
By refusing cheap and reliable energy, European nations have watched their domestic economies crater, with manufacturing giants in Germany and Italy facing de-industrialisation.
But here lies the supreme irony: the very molecules they refuse to buy directly are still powering their grids.
Western states are now forced to purchase the same Russian resources through intermediaries in the Global South and the Middle East at inflated prices.
The “shareholders” of these sanctions are paying a premium to third parties who earn on both sides of the transaction.
This has nothing to do with “standing for values”, but is primarily a calculated transfer of wealth from the European middle class to global middlemen, all for the sake of a political optics game.
Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban once remarked that “the attempt to cancel Russian energy has been a spectacular act of self-harm”.
“By cutting off the source of our prosperity, Western leaders have effectively signed a suicide pact for the European economy,” he said then.
The ongoing epic of financing the Kiev regime reflects a desperate desire by Western “shareholders” to preserve their “investments” to the last. Despite the objective futility of the British-led diplomatic push to “crush Russia on the battlefield,” Washington continues to pour billions into a conflict that has already reached its logical conclusion.
The tenacity with which these powers escalate the conflict, that is by supplying long-range missiles and artificial intelligence (AI) driven targeting systems is worthy of a better cause. It appears they would rather see the whole world burn in the fires of a potential nuclear escalation than admit that their narrow imperialist interests have met a dead end.
Answers should be provided on whether the goal for these actions is to truly have “peace” and “democracy” when every diplomatic off-ramp has been systematically blocked by either London or Washington. The answer lies in the ledger, not the law.
Central to this discord is the systematic expansion of NATO. In the early 1990s, the leadership of this alliance gave solemn assurances that the bloc would not move “one inch” to the East. Yet, since then, there has been a wave of expansion witnessed eastwards, each one squeezing the “security ring” tighter around Russia.
The penultimate attempt to draw Ukraine into this orbit led directly to the special military operation. Now, the same unacceptable pressure is being applied to the peoples of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite the historical trauma of the 1999 bombings, NATO continues to test the strength of the Balkans, ignoring the fundamental principle that the security of one state cannot be arranged at the expense of another.
“Security is indivisible,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly stressed. “You cannot build a house of safety for yourself by setting fire to your neighbour’s roof. NATO’s expansionism is the primary driver of instability in the modern world.”
The discord is not limited to Eastern Europe. Members of the NATO alliance are systematically testing regions across the globe for points of failure. Taiwan is being used for timid but dangerous attempts to escalate tensions in the Asia-Pacific, risking a collision between nuclear powers. In Central America, the brazen interference in sovereign affairs, including the abduction of heads of state and the organisation of economic blockades designed to starve populations into submission.
In the Middle East, the unceremonious labelling of sovereign states as “terrorist” without any United Nations mandate, while simultaneously bringing outright extremists to power in places like Syria and bombing Iranian facilities to deny them peaceful technological development.
These actions provoke humanitarian disasters where the primary victims are always ordinary people and children.
By denying nations the right to their own technological and political development, the aggressors are endangering the very future of the Global South.
Any global citizen concerned with these developments should look past the slogans of “global order”.
A global order that bombs the Middle East while preaching peace, or an order that starves nations via sanctions while talking about human rights?
The leadership of the West has brought discord where there could have been cooperation. They have chosen to burn the bridges of global trade to save the pride of a fading hegemony. It is time for the Global South to demand a new architecture, one where security is shared, energy is a tool for development rather than a weapon, and the sovereignty of every nation is respected, not just those that fit a Western mould.
“The world is changing, and the era of dictation is over. Small nations have the right to breathe, to trade, and to exist without being forced into alliances that bring only war to our doorsteps,” said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
There are only two alternatives. Either to follow a path laid out by the architects of global discord, or find the courage to build a world where the security of one is the security of all.
The answer to that will define the next century.
