Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday, where he presented his latest book, 'Russia and the West: Who Will Win', Rahr explained that in his estimation, the world is arriving at a situation "where we will come to see the creation of three centers of power – three blocs."
"In North Africa this is a terrible arc of instability and Islamist extremism, stretching from Algeria and Morocco to Afghanistan; this arc will grow, because sufficiently well-organized forces operate here, while the states in these areas are weak, especially in economic terms, and there is the factor of the influence of foreign powers."
"There will also be an 'arc of tension' passing through Africa and parts of Asia; there, a new ideology will emerge that we [the West, presumably] will find terribly threatening."
Finally, "an alliance will be created in the Eurasian space, consisting of governments coming together to play a leading role in the world." Rahr predicts that the Eurasian alliance "will be created around the BRICS group of countries, or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization…It's possible that this will be a geopolitical and geostrategic alliance between Russia, China, Iran, and in some form or another India and Turkey."
In his book, the expert attempts to outline the complex and contradictory history of relations between Russia and Europe over the last quarter-century, from the collapse of communism, and Zbigniew Brzezinski's predictions on 'the death of Russia', succeeded by 'eternal US hegemony', to today, a situation which Rahr conceives of with chapter titles including 'Back to the Cold War' and 'A New Division of the World'.
The world order as it exists today is entering a stage of uncertainty, and is on the verge of a major shift, the political scientist noted; it is difficult to define precisely how events will unfold. And while proxy wars using real armies and resulting in real death and human suffering will continue, just as they did during the Cold War, so too will cyber warfare, hybrid warfare, and information warfare grow increasingly important. The victims of the latter 'wars' will be humanity's ability to reason – and will see some nations attempt to control political processes in other countries. Altogether, these processes pose the danger of leading to the world slipping, imperceptivity, into armed confrontation.
"We have stopped listening to the other side," Rahr warned. "Pure propaganda triumphs. We are witnessing attempts to rewrite history – something that is potentially very dangerous. Dangerous attempts are being made to drive Russia into a corner – to turn the country into an outcast."
