November, 2024
Berlin — What is the BSW (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht) and why is it important? It is a splinter but growing group on the German left that could be a major force in the upcoming German elections. The U.S. Senate should be asking questions about it as the Senate begins confirmation hearings on American foreign policy nominations.
Despite the blessing given to it by influential German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck, BSW is a dangerous advocate of appeasing Russia. Along with the far-right AfD (Alternativ für Deutschand) party, it could turn German public opinion against supporting Ukraine in Ukraine's war of survival against Russia.
Additionally ominous is the selection in the U.S. of General Keith Kellogg as envoy to Ukraine and Russia, to try to end the war. His approach would appease Russia by giving it land in Ukraine's east and keep Ukraine out of NATO. German acquiescence to the Kellogg plan would seal Ukraine's fate and embolden Russia to invade other countries.
The war needs to end on terms other than inviting a proof of Halford John Mackinder's heartland geopolitical theory, that whoever controls Russia and eastern Europe controls the world island, and whoever controls the world island controls the world. Alfred Thayer Mahan's theory of sea power suggests a more acceptable way to end the war, to make Ukraine's suffering and sacrifice less in vain. If in a peace settlement Russia acquires hegemony over certain lands in the Donbas, Ukraine should be rewarded with the strategic Crimean port of Sevastopol for its remarkable naval successes in the Black Sea. As to NATO, Ukraine's control of Sevastopol would be guaranteed by NATO members bordering the Black Sea, which would be backed up as necessary by other NATO members, whose interests include freedom of those seas.
To bring Russia to the peace table, sea power projected to defend Ukrainian sovereignty over Crimean territories would be better leverage than Kellogg's dubious plan to threaten long range attacks into sovereign Russia, an escalation of the war.
BSW should signal opposition to the Kellogg plan immediately, and announce a search for alternatives that do not appease Russia, which already has its eyes on restoring the Soviet empire, including Moldova, Rumania, Slovakia, Poland, and the Baltic states The matter should be a top Senate concern in confirmation hearings for Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.
