Gaza & Ukraine: Of what strategic value on world stage?

Astute and foremost US Diplomat and scholar, the late Henry Kissinger, once described ‘strategy’ as ‘the mode of survival of a society’. Survival here may relate to the economy, politics, social relevance, and even the environment. You may ask: Who threatens the survival of whom? This can only be answered: NOT in absolute but in […]

Astute and foremost US Diplomat and scholar, the late Henry Kissinger, once described ‘strategy’ as ‘the mode of survival of a society’. Survival here may relate to the economy, politics, social relevance, and even the environment.

You may ask: Who threatens the survival of whom? This can only be answered: NOT in absolute but in relative terms, as the subject of our discussion today is Ukraine and Gaza, both of which have become pawns on the superpowers’ chessboard.

Regrettably, the Ukraine-Russia war is still fledging after more than one-and-a-half years while the Hamas-Israeli war has just entered its seventh week and is still blazing hot despite an ephemeral truce to secure hostage freedom.

Many, sure, will be asking to know what the strategic maneuverings concerning Gaza and Ukraine are all about in this complex chess game of global power play. Yes, proxy wars have always been employed by powerful nations to gain desired leverages, notwithstanding the colossal losses in lives and properties entailed therein.

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When the opening guns sounded in Ukraine, opinions were sharply divided, depending on what bloc you sided with, on the propriety or otherwise of Russia’s ‘military operation’ that snowballed into a full-fledged war with a current threat to go nuclear!

Russia claimed a threat to its ‘survival’ due to NATO’s expansion into its sphere of influence whereas NATO allies saw it as Russian aggression against a sovereign state which wanted ‘freedom’. We all should know by now, the undercurrent of that war which has had a heavy toll on Europe’s, nay, the world’s economy.

The Gaza ‘outburst’ of Oct. 7 signaled another hotbed of international tension though a crisis from that region was predictable by perceptive global affairs analysts. As it looks now, there are apparently ‘good’ and ‘bad’ reasons for the Gaza war.

However, those who should know and are competent to express a good judgement on such matters know the undercurrents – another proxy war to ‘even scores’, using age-old feuds as justifications.

Today, Ukraine is war-battered and wearied; apparently now left in the cold by its NATO allies who have shifted their attention to Gaza; which serves the strategic objective of its equally war-fatigued foe – Russia.

Gaza war has turned to be the focus of world attention as the geo-political value of the Middle East to Western powers, put on the scale, has displaced Ukraine!

As the world counts its losses in these crises, the vital question is: Quo Vadis (where do we go from here)?

 

Celsus Ohain, a journalist and author,  resides in Benin City.