By the end of World War II in 1945, it was evident that the world was polarized. There were no winners overall, but two main military powers emerged after 1945. The so-called winners were the Allied countries led by the US and the USSR also known as the Soviet Union and their allies.
Unable to trust one another, both blocks decided to start a cold war, meaning a fight for supremacy using proxies in the process. The western countries formed the NATO alliance and the Eastern bloc led by the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact to counterbalance the west militarily.
The consequences of a polarized world were felt worldwide. Wars started sprouting everywhere around the world, governments being deposed by opposition forces, presidents being assassinated, civil wars in Africa central and South America, the longest and bloodiest being fought in Angola, Colombia, El Salvador. Asia did not escape the carnage in Cambodia, Corea, Vietnam to mention some. The world was divided beyond repair.
Over the years, the communist bloc led by the Soviet Union fell apart. The Soviet Union was disintegrated and with it the Warsaw Pact was also disintegrated. That meant that some countries that formed the Soviet Union became countries in their own right. Other countries formerly part of the Warsaw Pact decided to part ways with communism and embraced the capitalism model. That was the case of Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, Estonia, Lithuania to mention just a few.
All these changes occurred in the 1980’s and 90’s. At that time, China was a very weak country unable to stop the changes. Instead China, although a communist country without freedom of speech and the press, looked to the United States to start building their economy one brick at the time. Being a large country and population, the Chinese leadership had a long-term vision for world domination without resorting to actual military confrontation with either superpower, namely the US and the USSR.
This ambivalence bought them time to build their empire, economically and militarily. They opened their market to foreign investors, which created factories, industries in every field of business. They started to create millions of jobs using cheap labor and, in the process, gained the know-how they needed to start walking on their own pace of economic development to the point of becoming the second largest and most powerful country in the world.
The Chinese were able to send hundreds of thousands of students to US, UK, France and most of western countries' best colleges and universities. The goal was to build the foundation for a very resilient economy and overtake the US in all fields, thus control the world.
At this point, China was looking for spheres of influence worldwide. The USSR was no longer a threat nor a competition. Therefore, they offered to lift the remainder of what was left of the former Soviet Union now known as the Russia Republic. Both countries had common interests in becoming the desire to dominate the world and counterbalance the US and the western countries' hegemony.
Slowly, these two countries started gathering and influencing other countries to join them to fight the western influence and domination. Sure enough, some countries started to voice their opinions against the western domination and the unfair treatment of international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, the International criminal court and the SWIFT banking system. They claim that these instruments of the current world order favor the west tremendously and that they have been weaponized. Things took a turn for the worse with the war in Ukraine.
Among the first to join China and Russia were India, Brazil and South Africa. They called the alliance the BRICS ( Brazil, Russia, India China, South Africa ). A few years later, many other countries joined, such as Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
It appears that the BRICS objectives now have changed. Some countries challenging the current world order, do not seem to know fully what they signed up for. With the start of the war in the heart of Europe in Ukraine, these countries are being pushed to dump the US led world order and start a new one with China at the top and Russia in second place.
They are now talking about dumping the dollar and replacing it with Yuan, the Chinese currency. These countries have issues among themselves, and they are not united as it may appear. Why do we say it? Because China has a disputed territory with India. China also has disputed territory with Russia. Turkey is a NATO member and Saudi Arabia's existence and security depends on US assistance. Mexico’s economy depends on US transactions by Mexicans living in America.
Another issue is that China is showering the poor countries with multi-billion dollars loans without accountability by the borrowers. Many countries already in debt with Chinese banks have shown no capacity to repay their debt, therefore they are trapped. Thus, they will be easy prey for the new masters. In that eventuality, China is counting on many countries to default on their debts so that they can claim ownership of those countries their people and the natural resources.
Expressing concern, some Africans are sounding the alarm, by saying that the continent will be colonized once again within the next decade or so if the Chinese influence is not stopped.
To make things worse, China has been flexing their military muscle to confront the US in the Indo Pacific over Taiwan. It is possible that at some point in the future the 3 most powerful nations in the security council may find themselves involved in a conflict with one another.
The issue over Ukraine and Taiwan could possibly be the triggers for the world to spiral into a dangerous conflict that would require divine intervention.