Today, April 4th, marks the release in France of philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy’s latest work, L’Empire et les Cinq Rois. Beginning and ending with Kurdistan, the book awakens readers, and hopefully, decision makers, to the shameful betrayal of the Kurds following their defense of common democratic values against the barbarity of ISIS.
Lévy begins with a singular moment, which sadly, many may not even remember now – only 6 months ago – the Battle of Kirkuk, October 2017. The aggression from Iraqi militias, backed by Iran, to take revenge on Kurdistan, for having exercised its right to vote on its own future, captures a seismic turn of events on the geo-political stage.
Kirkuk is invaded and Prime Minister Barzani calls his allies in DC in desperate need of help. No one is home. “America First” has gone into effect and it is not deemed strategic to come to the aid of the Kurds despite longstanding promises of support. The word of the “Empire”, as Lévy calls America, is hollow. The betrayal of the Kurds is a tragic moral error but it is also a severe strategic and political mistake. The world is watching America’s inaction, and in particular, “five kings” including Russia, Turkey, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia. Five illiberal, authoritian regimes for whom freedoms of religion, expression, gender equality and democracy are not particularly high on the agenda.
They are taking note as the United States sits out Kirkuk, similarly to 2013 when Obama’s infamous red line was crossed with no repercussions for belligerent Assad. Actions always speak louder than words and with no action from America, there seem to be opportunities abound for these five kings to retake their places at the table. And so, it is terrifyingly easy for Erdogan to commence a regime of ethnic cleansing in Afrin. Again, the world responds with nothing, or too little too late.
Lévy demonstrates that this new path of American retreat has been brewing for decades and is a slow but steady break with the Virgilian and European roots of the United States. Social contracts have shifted and been broken and the path back is not necessarily clear. Especially in the face of five kings who are wielding heavy machinery just as strongly through the cloud as on the ground.
Lévy’s brilliant mosaic of today’s geo-political tug of war is alarming for all who believe in liberal values but his vision is not without hope. The work should serve as a call to action for defenders of democracy in the United States and in Europe, where perhaps solutions lie. The fight is far from over…for Kurdistan, for the children of Afrin, for scholars and their students in Turkey and Iran, for gay-rights activists in Russia, for journalists in China. The list goes on…
The book is available today for American readers at Albertine online: https://www.albertine.com/book/lempire-et-les-cinq-rois/97822468168120000000/
And for French readers at: https://www.amazon.fr/LEmpire-cinq-rois-Bernard-Henri-Levy/dp/2246816815