The World After Ukraine

We should put aside Biden’s vision of an inexorable struggle between democracies and autocracies, and focus instead on pressing common challenges.

JEFFREY D. SACHS

THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY SPRING 2022

University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

While we can’t predict the future, we can state the future we’d like to see. For my part, I would greatly prefer a quick negotiated end to the conflict based on Ukrainian neutrality, an end to NATO en- largement, practical solutions for other outstanding issues (for example, implementation of the Minsk II terms for the Donbas), and Russia’s complete military withdraw- al from Ukraine. Russia would direct some of its frozen reserves into a Ukraine rebuilding fund, and the United States and Europe would recycle some of their new SDR holdings for this purpose. The sanctions on Russia would be rolled back on a timeline consistent with the implemen- tation of the peace accords.

With the war ended, we would try to rebuild an inter- national order based on the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a reform of glob- al finance to direct more flows to developing countries and towards the energy transition, and a real attempt to surmount the escalating geopolitical tensions. We would put aside Biden’s vision of an inexorable struggle between democracies and autocracies, and focus instead on press- ing common challenges facing all nations: the pandemic, climate change, global supply chains and regional securi- ty, nuclear disarmament, and many others. Our common interests can and should take priority over our differences. As President Kennedy famously said, “And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.”

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