Analysis. A new risky sport has emerged, thanks to the health crisis. In the open sea, without distinguishing the land on the horizon, many experts wonder about the respective strengths and weaknesses of democracies and authoritarian regimes against the Covid-19. Even if it means contradicting itself in a few weeks. At the start of the epidemic, the Chinese regime was presented as failing, shaking on its foundations, suffocated by its own lies. Then the opposite was written so hastily, when Beijing settled down as an interested benefactor and essential producer, faced with the influx of European requests for masks. We then lamented our dependencies, the slowness of Brussels. And now there is mounting resentment against China.
These endless debates are not without interest. But they must not hide another phenomenon, prior to this crisis, which has taken on an unprecedented scale. This is the advent of carnivorous diplomacy. This is how we can now describe practices that are now widespread between great powers, a mixture of brutality, propaganda for internal and external use, selfishness claimed and mistrust for any compromise acquired in a multilateral framework.
The classic international order that emerged from the Second World War should not be mythologized. The opacity and fragmentation of its institutions, the tension between the notions of international law and national sovereignty, and even the paralysis of the Security Council had been glaring for years. The endless disaster in Syria provides the most overwhelming example. But what is emerging is not a passing phenomenon. The bad example comes from the United States, a former guardian of this order, now putting him in the ground.
The Trump administration is characterized by an unprecedented disregard for the multilateral format. It operates through scapegoats, from the office helping Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to the World Health Organization (WHO), via European allies in NATO. It does not feel committed by the word of previous administrations and by the principle of state continuity, as shown by the withdrawal of the Iranian nuclear agreement or that on the climate, in order to burn the Obama legacy.
Beijing's areas of influence
Since the former guardian of the system now behaves like an actor without faith or law, the common rules are erased, the force is declined in words and gestures. Russia, China and Turkey are currently using similar methods of communication – with very questionable efficacy – in addition to their more than ever decisive military projection capabilities. Each country has its particularities, it is obvious, but common features emerge. In a mixture of nationalism, contempt for historical truth and paranoia, these states hunt down opponents and question the work of critical journalists. They use their own media relays – TV channels, news agencies, affiliate accounts on social media – not only to paint a fairytale image of their actions, but also to denigrate Western governments, representatives of a competitive model deemed faulty. Sometimes it is the diplomats themselves who do the dirty work.
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