Spirit of Newfoundland Declaration is the Real Atlanticism

The term Atlanticism has been understood in a variety of ways. In the original version, it expressed anti-Nazi and democratic beliefs, articulated by Churchill and Roosevelt off the shores of Newfoundland Bay in 1941 and then supported by 26 Allies, including Stalin. Among the principles of the Atlantic Charter were shared values, such as self-determination of peoples, global peaceful cooperation, and prevention at all costs of a new slaughter like World War II. These ideal foundations then led to the birth of the UN and many hopes for a better world. A whole other thing is the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington in 1949, which gave rise to NATO, with a clearly anti-Soviet and anti-communist function.

This second Atlanticism was born out of the belief that Communism was such a wrong system in theory and practice that it legitimized unfettered reaction. Crimes were committed both in the name of communism and anti-communism. The end justified the worst means. In the name of anti-communism, NATO and the CIA had been setting up clandestine paramilitary structures in European countries since 1956. Italy has a famous structure called Stay Behind, Gladio, which was commanded for a long time by General Paolo Inzerilli, who died on March 24, 2024. The general was closely associated with liberal and democratic ideals. A thousand-percent Atlanticist. Some newspapers, however, recalled that despite being an impeccable Atlanticist, in the last years of his life he became a severe critic of modern Atlanticism. His various public statements repeated arguments that followed the most classic pro-Russian themes: in particular, he was for the demilitarization of Ukraine and against its accession to NATO.

For various reasons, there is a unique debate in Italy about Atlanticism today. Only in Israel there is an open, democratic, and multifaceted debate comparable to the Italian one: from Moshe Dayan to Yitzhak Rabin to Ariel Sharon, Israeli history is characterized by generals who have changed their minds and boldly expressed public positions clearly, at odds with their past.

The case of General Inzerilli sheds light on a Western phenomenon that has not been properly described and that exist not just in Italy. There are a large and significant number of people who were Atlanticists but have become very critical of today’s Atlanticism. We are not talking about pro-Russians, but about people who have taken unexpected positions for decades; today they are still in those positions, except for the conflict in Ukraine. We are not talking about ordinary people, but generals, ambassadors, journalists, intelligence experts. This “Atlantic” resistance to today’s Atlanticism is evident in Italy, where there are cases of macroscopic importance. Many Atlanticists express their doubts through improvised means, such as Facebook, or in their home kitchens, which in some ways is similar to what Svetlana Alexievich claimed was only possible under a dictatorship. Along with the generals, many respected scientists have expressed serious doubts. For example, the world-renowned physicist Carlo Rovelli gave regular reviews in the Wall Street Journal with the greatest benevolence from the newspaper.

There are disagreements, doubts, and concerns about the West’s military strategies.

In Italy this resistance is explicit, in other countries it is more or less hidden. Davos is an exemplary case. It’s hard to imagine Klaus Schwab trusting Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken more than his teacher Henry Kissinger. Klaus Schwab wrote “Covid: The Great Reset,” but he was thinking of a different kind of assembly. Like Bill Gates, he fears a thousand other ills are looming: he doesn’t want the Bernie Sanders or Noam Chomsky treatment, but he also doesn’t want the geopolitical adventure for this old and imperfect world, in which untold billions have nevertheless been made.

The same is true for many others; going forward, the future of Davos was expected to be inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. All the clashes, from Gaza to Ukraine, from the trade war with China to the sudden rise of highly conflictual India, frame an international situation that is becoming less and less manageable, increasingly centrifugal and problematic; Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates were thinking about another vaccine, not nuclear weapons or how to incite hatred between and within countries. At Davos, in January 2024, Jack Sullivan was not at all reassuring when he said that “the post-Cold War era has come to an end, we are at the beginning of something new” or when he said that it was inconceivable that “some group like the Houthis could essentially take over the world, which they are doing.” How many more “unthinkable” Houthis are there? Are we at the beginning of “something” new and therefore elusive? They were thinking of Davos, obviously applauding Sullivan or the even more enigmatic Milei.

Today, 2781 billionaires are concerned about their hard-earned savings. Like many others, they think that maybe when they wake up tomorrow, they will realize that all is not as it seems. The same thing happened to many of yesterday’s Atlanticists. Francesco Gironda was a great friend of General Inzerilli, with whom he worked closely as an expert on psychological warfare and as a representative of Gladio. After studying the intervention that took place in Italy and which was gradually being discovered and analyzed, Francesco Gironda, like Paolo Inzerilli, changed his mind on a fundamental question: “For many years I believed I was waging a war against Communism, and I did not realize that I was waging a war against the interests of Italy.” The most distinguished researcher of these topics, Giovanni Fasanella, has detailed and explained the reasons for this unusual mooring. Many Atlanticists may tomorrow come to the conclusion that they believed it was necessary to engage in a war against Russia; instead, they were drawn into a war against European interests. The lengthy war waged by a highly ideologized and determined group that distorts and betrays native Atlantic values.

In conclusion, we note that there are various Atlanticisms. The original, dated 1941, was abandoned, also from a memorial and monumental standpoint, abandoned with four chairs and two posters between sand and rocks, in Placentia Bay, along the coast of Newfoundland, a few kilometers from St. John’s, Canada. In addition, there is a different Atlanticism from that of 1941, as it is dominated by the Five Eyes, an Anglosphere intelligence alliance that does not even allow the French and Germans as members. There will also be a third Atlanticism, busy counting and calculating who lost and who won in this latest war “within” or, more precisely, “against” Europe.