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BRICS Rising: Is the West’s Unipolar World Collapsing? // Kim Iversen
Kim Iversen | Trusted Newsmaker
BRICS Rising: Is the West’s Unipolar World Collapsing?
The geopolitical landscape is shifting dramatically. A once-uncontested Western-led order is being challenged by the rise of BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—along with new applicants. The transcript highlights a turning point: U.S.-Russia dialogue, European resistance, NATO’s eastward expansion, and the Global South’s growing alignment around multipolarity.
Trump-Putin Summit in Alaska
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s meeting in Alaska was framed as a breakthrough. They spoke privately, then with aides, focusing on Ukraine but also the larger question of U.S.-Russia normalization. Putin invited Trump to Moscow, signaling openness to reset ties. Trump hailed the meeting as “progress,” while critics in Western media decried it as betrayal.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Perspective
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, argued the summit pulled the world “back from the edge.” For her, NATO escalation had recreated a reverse Cuban Missile Crisis. Direct dialogue between Trump and Putin opened the possibility of averting nuclear catastrophe. Yet, she warned, Western media and governments remained committed to confrontation.
The Ceasefire Debate
Unlike typical wars, where a ceasefire precedes negotiations, both Russia and Trump argue peace should come through direct agreements rather than pauses that allow Ukraine to rearm. Russia insists its core security concerns—chiefly, no NATO membership for Ukraine and no offensive weapons near its border—must be addressed before any truce. In this framing, ceasefires risk becoming tactical delays, not genuine steps toward peace.
NATO Expansion and Broken Promises
The transcript revisits history: U.S. officials in the early 1990s assured Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastward. Despite this, five rounds of NATO enlargement followed, bringing alliance forces closer to Russia’s borders. For Moscow, this was a direct provocation—akin to Russian or Chinese weapons stationed on America’s borders. Russia’s 2021 ultimatum to Biden demanding binding security guarantees went unanswered.
Europe’s Warpath
Europe remains a puzzle in the discussion. Why do European states—those most exposed to potential conflict—push hardest for escalation against Russia? Zepp-LaRouche argues Europe is trapped in a colonial mindset, clinging to unipolar domination under U.S. and British pressure. Figures like Josep Borrell, who once described Europe as a “garden” and the rest of the world as a “jungle,” reveal this mentality. For many in the Global South, NATO’s war in Ukraine looks like another neocolonial venture.
The Global South and BRICS
The Global South is no longer passive. Fueled by China’s rise, nations are seeking to break free from centuries of economic dependency. Instead of exporting cheap raw materials, they aim to develop full value chains at home. Infrastructure, industrial parks, and electrification projects—often funded by China—are creating alternatives to Western economic dominance. The BRICS framework, now expanding to BRICS+, is becoming the organizational hub of this shift.
Not Anti-West, But Post-West
Zepp-LaRouche stresses that BRICS is not an “anti-NATO bloc.” Its members openly invite cooperation with all nations, including the United States. The problem is not ideological but structural: Western powers cling to sanctions, dollar weaponization, and military interventions, while BRICS offers infrastructure, trade, and partnership. The appeal of BRICS lies in its promise of development, not domination.
Visions of Cooperation
Proposals like the Bering Strait Tunnel connecting Eurasia and the Americas symbolize the alternative world order. Instead of endless wars and sanctions, global infrastructure networks could unite continents and spread prosperity. Russia, China, and India already discuss Arctic and Far East development as joint ventures. For advocates like Zepp-LaRouche, these projects prove the world is at a “branching point” between destructive geopolitics and constructive cooperation.
The unipolar world is collapsing—not because BRICS seeks confrontation, but because it offers an alternative vision attractive to the Global South. NATO’s expansion, Western interventions, and sanctions have backfired, pushing nations toward multipolarity. The Alaska summit, BRICS expansion, and new infrastructure visions all suggest a turning point. The question now is whether the West adapts—or clings to a system already unraveling.
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