Angel Jaramillo Torres
It is not only Putin but also his theologian and guru who has penetrated the corridors of American power.
A connoisseur of the nooks and crannies of Moscow’s streets, the political theologian Alexander Dugin is very reminiscent of Falstaff, that plump figure who, according to Harold Bloom, educated Prince Hal — the future Henry V — in the wisdom of taverns in William Shakespeare’s Henry IV.
However, unlike Falstaff, Dugin indirectly imparted to Vladimir Putin an education not in the art of statesmanship but tyranny. It is to Dugin and his promotion of Neo-Eurasianism that we owe the Russian president’s change of heart around 2012 towards an imperialist vision of the world and the decision to harass Ukraine to annex that country to Russia militarily.
Dugin’s white whale —his personal Moby Dick— is liberalism, which he considers proof that the Antichrist has arrived in the world. Let us remember that Eurasianist ideology is nothing other than the proposal of political theology in the Orthodox civilization. At its core is the idea that human beings should live their lives in a permanent state of prostration and obedience to power, whose ultimate source is none other than the revealed God.
Putin believes this, and this is what lies behind the populist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Knowing that the Russian government—through various mechanisms—has influenced Trumpian ideology and the New York magnate’s rise to power, Dugin has always backed Trump since he showed real opportunities to occupy the White House.
Dugin’s influence is already being felt among important Trumpist intellectuals, such as Peter Thiel, who has recently described globalization as the Antichrist. Thiel’s transformation into a political theologian is not surprising. He has been saying for some time that he is a Christian, and perhaps he is. In this context, what is fundamental is the new language he has been using since Trump came to power.
This transformation coincides with the fact that Putin’s so-called Rasputin has just published a book on what he calls the Trump revolution. In terms of foreign policy, Dugin promotes the idea that the alternative to globalization — which he claims is aimed at changing human nature — is the establishment of an order dominated by empires that, in turn, are based on their civilizing roots. In Dugin’s conception, Mexico would be a vassal state of the American Empire, just as Ukraine is of the Russian Empire.
Of course, in the world order proposed by Dugin, there is no room for international law, multilateralism between nations, or the peaceful settlement of disputes through mechanisms such as the United Nations.
Undoubtedly, Dugin has found fertile ground in the Trumpian jungle to spread his ideas. Trump agrees with Dugin’s approach to empire dominance.
It is no coincidence that the favorite American geopolitical thinker of the new Rasputin is Samuel P. Huntington, the author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. In his book, Dugin even goes so far as to say that Huntington’s thesis prevailed over Francis Fukuyama’s thesis of the end of history.
We know that Trump recently hung a portrait of President James K. Polk on one of the walls of the White House. Polk was one of the most imperialist US presidents in history. Dugin’s teaching, on which the presidents of Russia and the United States agree, is the desirability of a world dominated by empires. I wonder if international analysts and Mexican diplomats have given this any thought. Apparently not.
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