The European empires were commercial ventures, extracting raw materials for the workshops and factories at home. These empires were already weakening in the nineteenth century, because social changes at home meant that practices like slavery were no longer acceptable, thus increasing the cost of administering the colonies, and decreasing profitability. The solution was what we now call the rules-based order, and means that European-style legal systems control business across borders, so armed force need not be used to enforce contracts. It also pooled all the European empires into one system, so everyone could buy resources from anywhere, and the local elites (like my ancestors) who once had to be bought off can become corrupt politicians, so the West can disclaim any responsibility.
The MAGA movement's foreign policy forsakes this extraordinarily convenient system for the older system of explicit, militarily-defended empires. It brings the US into conflict with every power that matters in the world except Russia. The US will have to spend an awful lot on the Department of War to maintain its economic exclusivity arrangements, of the sort it is currently building with Venezuela. Theodore Roosevelt said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick,' but MAGA has chosen to scream into the void about how big its stick is instead.
"The solution was what we now call the rules-based order, and means that European-style legal systems control business across borders, so armed force need not be used to enforce contracts."
I wonder how Europe got there? Maybe they all decided to talk through their problems.
There many other books/articles/documentaries published since.
I think most people don't understand America. So maybe an immigrant like me can help: the United States isn't an enduring superpower because it's an eternal and permanent amazing place free of problems. Its unique power of self-healing and course correction is what makes it great. When everything seems lost, when everybody says "this time is different, it's the big one that will end America", our system finds a way out.
I won't argue whether the current administration and wars are good or bad. I'll just say that we'll overcome, like we always did, our problems.
- America will stop being the superpower, the only one
There was a point after the fall of the Berlin wall and before China joined the WTO (and for an indeterminate number of years after) where America's status as the sole superpower was indisputable.
The moment the US can no longer rely on the Dollar being the most popular reserve currency to finance its internal debt, it risks ceasing to be A superpower. Its military might was built on debt and that’s not sustainable.
"America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still."
> There were many other books/articles/documentaries with the same doom-and-gloom published since.
The USA losing its pre-eminent superpower status doesn't mean the end of the USA, or even the end of life as we know it. Are you rejecting some claim in the article that wasn't even made?
Extraordinary claims require an extraordinary proof. So far, I am not sure it’s either unique or even there.
When was the last time the US needed “self-healing”?
> I'll just say that we'll overcome, like we always did, our problems
This is true, until you don’t. Past evidence is not a guarantee of future performance. Whether the US can live up to its idealised version remains to be seen.
Global dominance is an unreachable goal in the first place. Even with AI.
All the article does is recognise the shift in Grand Strategy, but comes to all the wrong conclusions, because they completely miss what the current US Grand Strategy is.
There is a consensus across all factions in the US Government to secure the US “backyard” in the Western Hemisphere as an exclusive zone of interest where the US can regenerate its strength.
That’s the primary goal for this current US administration and they are making pretty good progress. Basically everyone is afraid they are going to be the next Venezuela, including Canada.
Hegseth’s recent revival of the century-old “Greater North America” security perimeter underlines where the US locates its vital security interests. You just need to listen.
From Greenland in the North through the Panama Canal all the way to the littoral states of the “Gulf of America” north of the equator.
The Iran war is a setback, and I doubt Trump and Bibi will be friends any longer after this because the Israelis dragged him into that mess and now Bibi is literally fighting for his life in an election and so is Trump.
But it’s just a blip in the grand scheme of things.
How the US should secure its interests in its traditional spheres of influence in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East is important, but not essential to the US Grand Strategy.
If the US Army wanted to end the Iran war, it could do it within an hour. Iran cannot compete with the level of Escalation the US is capable of.
Using a tactical nuclear weapon to atomise their government in session and asking for an unconditional surrender or they are going to continue, nuking desalination for example to make Iran permanently uninhabitable and therefore inoperable for the IRCG, is an option that is always on the table for the president.
It would come with serious repercussions though, but can he do it? Any time of the day.
So the question is not if they can win the war and project power across the region with an iron fist, but if they should. And the answer to that is no. Especially now that their Middle East logistics have been shredded by the Iranians.
I make fun of Trump a lot, but all his toddler warlord rhetoric did not include nuclear threats, so far. Unlike that of his equally dumb Russian counterpart.
They looked like two incontinent Disney princesses on that red carpet in Anchorage.
So somewhere in his brain there is a single cell firing the signal nuke = bad.
Let’s hope it can keep up with the ones that got in contact with the bleach when he got his Covid treatment at Walter Reid for a while longer.
> US Government to secure the US “backyard” in the Western Hemisphere as an exclusive zone of interest
Is this what the US came to represent? A colonial power sponsoring friendly dictators and treating half of the planet as its plaything?
If that’s true, is it even worth fixing?
> You cannot rule the Middle East with an iron fist, only by soft power
You can’t rule anywhere with an iron fist and still be considered a shining beacon of democracy. Or even a role model. And you mentioned genocide on an unprecedented scale.
25 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 153 ms ] threadBut did you omit Biden (or did you not)? IOW shouldn't you have said "THREE dangerous buffoons"?
- Leonard Cohen https://genius.com/Leonard-cohen-what-is-coming-21603-annota...
After that, hell no, I don't want any of that.
The MAGA movement's foreign policy forsakes this extraordinarily convenient system for the older system of explicit, militarily-defended empires. It brings the US into conflict with every power that matters in the world except Russia. The US will have to spend an awful lot on the Department of War to maintain its economic exclusivity arrangements, of the sort it is currently building with Venezuela. Theodore Roosevelt said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick,' but MAGA has chosen to scream into the void about how big its stick is instead.
I wonder how Europe got there? Maybe they all decided to talk through their problems.
"The End of the American Era" was published in 1970:
https://www.amazon.com/End-American-Era-Andrew-Hacker/dp/B00...
There many other books/articles/documentaries published since.
I think most people don't understand America. So maybe an immigrant like me can help: the United States isn't an enduring superpower because it's an eternal and permanent amazing place free of problems. Its unique power of self-healing and course correction is what makes it great. When everything seems lost, when everybody says "this time is different, it's the big one that will end America", our system finds a way out.
I won't argue whether the current administration and wars are good or bad. I'll just say that we'll overcome, like we always did, our problems.
- America will stop being a superpower
- America will stop being the superpower, the only one
There was a point after the fall of the Berlin wall and before China joined the WTO (and for an indeterminate number of years after) where America's status as the sole superpower was indisputable.
It’s a sad age when I can’t tell if OP is hyperbolic or just actually that retarded.
is it because each batch of immigrants is always rehabilitating it :3
(second gen)
-- e.e. cummings
The USA losing its pre-eminent superpower status doesn't mean the end of the USA, or even the end of life as we know it. Are you rejecting some claim in the article that wasn't even made?
Extraordinary claims require an extraordinary proof. So far, I am not sure it’s either unique or even there.
When was the last time the US needed “self-healing”?
> I'll just say that we'll overcome, like we always did, our problems
This is true, until you don’t. Past evidence is not a guarantee of future performance. Whether the US can live up to its idealised version remains to be seen.
All the article does is recognise the shift in Grand Strategy, but comes to all the wrong conclusions, because they completely miss what the current US Grand Strategy is.
There is a consensus across all factions in the US Government to secure the US “backyard” in the Western Hemisphere as an exclusive zone of interest where the US can regenerate its strength.
That’s the primary goal for this current US administration and they are making pretty good progress. Basically everyone is afraid they are going to be the next Venezuela, including Canada.
Hegseth’s recent revival of the century-old “Greater North America” security perimeter underlines where the US locates its vital security interests. You just need to listen.
From Greenland in the North through the Panama Canal all the way to the littoral states of the “Gulf of America” north of the equator.
The Iran war is a setback, and I doubt Trump and Bibi will be friends any longer after this because the Israelis dragged him into that mess and now Bibi is literally fighting for his life in an election and so is Trump. But it’s just a blip in the grand scheme of things.
How the US should secure its interests in its traditional spheres of influence in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East is important, but not essential to the US Grand Strategy.
If the US Army wanted to end the Iran war, it could do it within an hour. Iran cannot compete with the level of Escalation the US is capable of.
Using a tactical nuclear weapon to atomise their government in session and asking for an unconditional surrender or they are going to continue, nuking desalination for example to make Iran permanently uninhabitable and therefore inoperable for the IRCG, is an option that is always on the table for the president.
It would come with serious repercussions though, but can he do it? Any time of the day.
So the question is not if they can win the war and project power across the region with an iron fist, but if they should. And the answer to that is no. Especially now that their Middle East logistics have been shredded by the Iranians.
I make fun of Trump a lot, but all his toddler warlord rhetoric did not include nuclear threats, so far. Unlike that of his equally dumb Russian counterpart.
They looked like two incontinent Disney princesses on that red carpet in Anchorage.
So somewhere in his brain there is a single cell firing the signal nuke = bad.
Let’s hope it can keep up with the ones that got in contact with the bleach when he got his Covid treatment at Walter Reid for a while longer.
Is this what the US came to represent? A colonial power sponsoring friendly dictators and treating half of the planet as its plaything?
If that’s true, is it even worth fixing?
> You cannot rule the Middle East with an iron fist, only by soft power
You can’t rule anywhere with an iron fist and still be considered a shining beacon of democracy. Or even a role model. And you mentioned genocide on an unprecedented scale.