TEHRAN - Graham Allison’s 2017 book ‘Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap’ has become the topic of hot debate among Western think tanks as historical evidence indicates that Thucydides trap magnifies the chances of military confrontation between a ruling power and a rising power for dictating the terms of societal order.

To some other political scientists like Samuel Huntington, it is the cultural and religious identities that can become the source of war as explained in his 1996 book ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.’

Thucydides trap and clash of civilizations beautifully explains the prospects of military confrontation but the established 21st century international order that originated at the time of World War I, evolved through the World War II and reached its climax in 1974 with the establishment of petrodollar scam has become incredibly complex to comprehend with respect to any upcoming military confrontation.

The overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in a CIA-backed coup in 1953 is a fine example of understanding the influence of corporations like British Petroleum to use the U.S. and British governments for securing its interests.

The coup of Mosaddegh in 1953 was meant to prevent the renationalization of Anglo Iranian oil company that later became British Petroleum in 1954. These facts were officially confirmed by CIA in 2013. It was not only the coup of democratically elected leader but it demonstrated how financial and business elites can orchestrate mega conflicts to push countries into catastrophic wars.

The World War I traces its origins to three powerful men – William T. Stead, Reginald Brett, and Cecil Rhodes. They used their enormous wealth and influence to form “Jesuit Order” based secret society with monetary consolidation for establishing a new societal order by replacing the prevailing one through orchestrating two mega conflicts in the form of World War 1 and World War 2.

These facts were admitted by Cecil Rhodes himself in his article ‘Mr. Rhodes’s Ideal of Anglo-Saxon Greatness’ and the events have been thoroughly explained by Gerry Docherty in his book ‘Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War’ and Peter Hof in ‘Two Edwards: How King Edward VII and Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey Fomented the First World War.’

Governments are also pushed towards trade wars by wealthy business interests that can damage the whole global economy like the current U.S.-China trade war.

The U.S.-China trade war is less about actual trade and more about the development in key technologies like AI, Quantum Computing, robotics and hypersonic weapons as obvious from the statement of Xi Jinping in memory chip plant of Wuhan city in which he stated that “no matter how big a person is he or she can never be strong without a sound and strong heart.”

Thus China has pledged to invest $150 billion in AI and semiconductor industry.

The arrest of  Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was about to restrain the expansion of the company in 5G and AI and the trade war is about the superiority in the knowledge base of corporations and not necessarily about money.

Till now corporate lobby has pushed for trade wars that may result in shooting wars but what would the future look like when corporations grow even more powerful and there are autonomous weapons and private armies at their disposal.

The ‘Confession of Economic Hitman’ by John Perkins, which was on New York Times’ best-seller list in 2005, exposes the agenda of elite financial cabal and the true drivers behind globalization, corporate cronyism and also discusses the debt enslavement by World Bank and International monetary fund.

The corporatocracy transcends the national boundaries to subjugate governments in order to enhance their control over planets’ resources and the U.S. is merely meant to support the agenda of these multinational corporations. 

According to John Perkins, the U.S. empire is a small part of the global corporate empire and from last 12 years, the U.S. itself has become the target of Vampire squid sucking the blood of American citizens through debt, underinvestment, enforced austerity and privatization.

Currently, 3% of the U.S population constitutes millionaires and astonishingly 40% of the U.S. congressmen and 78% US senators are millionaires. In 2004, 2008 and 2012 the U.S presidential campaigning expenditures were $4.1 billion, $5.3 billion and $6.3 billion respectively for a designation that pays $400,000 a year.

The truth is simple that the presidential campaign is funded by corporations and later they use them as per their whim.

It is a trajectory to a mega conflict and beyond the explanation of Thucydides trap as in the past nothing has emerged more powerful than the governments. Whole countries can be destroyed by mega-corporations as obvious from ‘Independent’ article which noted that “Google planned to help Syrian rebels bring down Assad regime leaked Hilary Clinton emails claim.”

Now the Eurasian strategic triangle of Iran, Russia, and China need to defend themselves and rest of the peaceful nations against any devastating war enforced by West on behalf of its private corporations.

So the need of the hour is to cut the head of the snake that is the monopoly and concentration of power with such organizations. Thus the model of state-owned defense industry of Iran, Russia, and China is a way to contain the influence of such corporations.

Currently, it may seem difficult to escape the predatory creditism based western economic model but the past revolutions like ‘Islamic revolution of Iran presents hope for the world to propagate global peace and a sustainable economic model that will serve the humanity and save it from getting enslaved.

 Writer is a Kashmir-based student and independent researcher.