Unholy Alliance Book

[Fatima Teem]

In1855, the term "Unholy Alliance" was used for Western European alliances with the Ottoman Empire against the interests of Russia, Greece, and most of the Balkans.[1] It was an ironic reference to the original Holy Alliance created after the Napoleonic War in 1815 by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.[2]

The term came to be used by African nationalists to describe the predominantly-white governments of Southern Africa from 1961 to 1980: South Africa, Rhodesia, and the Portuguese Empire.[6][7][8] For example, during the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Fourteenth Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 27 February to 6 March 1970, stated they were "Deeply concerned at the strengthening of the unholy alliance among the racist regimes of Pretoria, Salisbury, Lisbon and their collaboration with other imperialist powers".[9] In its resolution 3151 G (XXVIII) of 14 December 1973, the UN General Assembly condemned what it termed an unholy alliance between South African apartheid and Zionism.[10]

Western export controls and the increased focus of Western capitals on the enforcement of sanctions have meant that Russia has no other long-term option than to shift to importing Chinese-manufactured industrial and consumer goods. As a result, sales of Chinese industrial equipment jumped by 54 percent in 2023 compared with the previous year, and sales of Chinese cars nearly quadrupled, making Russia the largest overseas market for Chinese automobiles with combustion engines. Hidden in these figures are Chinese-made items that directly boost the Russian military machine, including growing exports of chips, optics, drones, and sophisticated manufacturing tools.

Beyond professional ties, connections to China are becoming increasingly important for Russian elites in crafting futures for themselves and their offspring. Most of these figures are now under Western sanctions, with the possibility of keeping their wealth in the West or sending their children to the United States or Europe for education foreclosed. The top Chinese and Hong Kong universities, meanwhile, are ranked much higher than similar institutions in Russia. There is growing anecdotal evidence that for the first time in Russian history, members of the Russian elite and their children have started to learn Mandarin.

Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, war has become the organizing principle of Russian domestic, economic, and foreign policy. The Kremlin now assesses every relationship with a foreign power through a lens of three essential considerations: whether this relationship can help Russia directly on the battlefield in Ukraine, whether it can help sustain the Russian economy and circumvent sanctions, and whether it can help Moscow push back against the West and punish the United States and its allies for supporting Kyiv.

Unsurprisingly, this shift has only exacerbated the asymmetry that characterizes Sino-Russian relations. As a larger and more technologically advanced economy that maintains pragmatic ties with the West, China has stronger bargaining power and many more options than does Russia, and its leverage over its northern neighbor is growing all the time. Russia is now locking itself into vassalage to China. A couple of years down the road, Beijing will be more able to dictate the terms of economic, technological, and regional cooperation with Moscow. The Kremlin is not blind to that prospect, but it does not have much choice as long as Putin needs Chinese support to fight his war in Ukraine, which has become an obsession.

Russia also has some advanced military technologies that China still needs, despite the overall superior sophistication of Chinese defense manufacturing. These include S-500 surface-to-air missiles, engines for modern fighter jets, tools for nuclear deterrence such as early-warning systems, stealthier submarines, and technologies for underwater warfare. Despite an exodus of talent following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia still has some brainpower, particularly in information technology, that China is interested in tapping.

Indeed, the deepening of this partnership is one of the most consequential results of the Ukrainian tragedy. Moscow and Beijing may never sign a formal alliance, but the evolution of their relationship in the years ahead will increasingly affect the world and challenge the West.

If the China-Russia tandem is here to stay, Western leaders must build a long-term strategy that will help maintain peace by accounting for all the ramifications of having to compete with China and Russia simultaneously. For a start, the West will need to find the right balance between deterrence and reassurance with Moscow and Beijing to avoid dangerous escalatory situations that could arise from accidents, misperceptions, and miscommunication. Western governments should consider the second-order effects of the coercive economic measures they have applied to Russia and China and how retaliatory countermeasures further erode the fabric of globalization. And while they should not tolerate Russian and Chinese disinformation and attempts to subvert the functioning of international institutions, Western countries should seek to make some of these institutions, such as the United Nations and its related agencies, functional again even with Beijing and Moscow on board. When considering how to protect European and Asian security, rein in climate change, govern new disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, and address the challenges facing global financial architecture, Western policymakers must now reckon with the reality of an increasingly resolute Sino-Russian axis.

You can use monks for your own purpose, for very negative aims and objectives ... The monks and the military entered into this kind of unholy alliance ... Many activists believe that the military is using religion to keep power.

Trump has vowed to be the best friend Israel has ever had and has floated the idea of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer has actually praised Zionism for helping inspire the ethno-nationalism that he has made his own.

Herein lies the key to understanding this alliance. The state of Israel was founded at the end of World War II, when the major powers sought to redraw the world map in a way so that (nearly) every minority got their own country. This way, there would be no minorities. In order for Israel to become a Jewish state, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had to be ethnically cleansed in what is now known as the Nakbe.

As shocking as it might seem to see orthodox Jews eagerly jump into bed with rabid antisemites, we should really know better than to be surprised. What the alt-right and Israeli settlers (and their supporters) have in common is a shared fervor for ethno-nationalism and a strong inclination towards Islamophobia and racism.

Fred Salvucci: He's a likable guy, but obviously he wanted to build all the roads and I wanted to build none of the roads. So we would meet every Thursday and almost always in disagreement on the substance, but you get to know each other, you get to be pretty friendly.

NARR: He wanted to talk about a highway, of course, but not any of the roads you heard about in the last episode. This was about a highway that had already been built, called the Central Artery.

Fred Salvucci: And Reynolds said, uh, you know, I've been trying to figure out why you guys don't like highways, cuz highways are beautiful things. They've built America, they've built a middle class. And I've come to the conclusion that the reason you don't like highways is because the elevated central artery is such a big, ugly, dysfunctional thing. It's like a giant neon sign flashing saying, highways are bad. Highways are ugly, highways don't work.

NARR: The Central Artery was one of the first elevated highways built anywhere in the country, well before the anti-highway movement had gathered any real strength in Boston. If you recall the hub and spoke plan for the whole city, this was the north-south spoke, designed to bring traffic right into the heart of downtown. In the 50s, when the Artery was under construction, the Boston Globe hailed it as our "Highway in the Skies," and claimed that it would soon "smash the city's bottleneck." Well that mood changed pretty quickly when the road actually opened.

ARCHIVAL: What's it like to get in and out of Boston? Oh, it's a mess. Most time from six in the morning till nine o'clock any day. Solid traffic now right over here to the Charlestown. I see lots of congestion over there at the sumner tunnel too.

NARR: Because it was designed before the Interstate Highway System, the Central Artery didn't conform to all the rules of that system. The lanes were too narrow, the turns were too tight, and worst of all, the on-ramps and off-ramps were too close together.

NARR: Someone told me that if you want to understand the stereotype of the aggressive Boston driver, it all begins with the Central Artery. Because if you wanted to get on or off the thing, you had to be aggressive.

Fred Salvucci: And then the city will be beautiful, transportation work. And guys like you will stop opposing highways cuz you'll see they're great. And I, I said gee Bill, that's a wonderful image, but we're gonna have to put a sign up at the Charles's river: a city closed for alterations, come back in 10 years. How the hell are we gonna do this thing without shutting the city down?

Fred Salvucci: I was walking under the central artery all the time. From city hall, I'd go across to the north end and, and those years you could get additional macaroni and beans for half a buck.

NARR: And on those lunchtime walks he started looking around, and realizing just how much space there was underneath the structure of the Artery. Maybe enough to actually dig a tunnel while you keep the elevated highway up and running. Meaning, traffic would never have to stop.

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