If that Hamas attacked IsraelRepublicans knew who to blame: the president Joe Biden. Donald Trump asserted that the attack would not have occurred if he had still occupied the White House; Mike Pencewhile condemning Trump for his praise Hezbollah and Hamas, stated that Biden somehow represented the interests of US for “projecting weakness.”
Like much of what the American right says these days, these smears were both vile and childish. No, the American president is not like the Green Lantern, who can influence world events solely through the power of his will. And Biden has actually taken a remarkably tough stance on international affairs, much tougher than his predecessor.
In general, it is striking how the extreme left has no significant influence on the Democratic Partyas for the extreme right, which almost completely controls the country Republican Party, are American solipsisms. Both blame US leaders for everything bad that happens in the world and deny any foreign influence.
US President Joe Biden during a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Photo: Susan Walsh / AP
However, even serious scholars of international relations note that the planet appears to be becoming a more dangerous place as several local cold wars intensify, suggesting that we may be witnessing the end of the Pax Americana, the long era in which economic… and political developments were observed. The US military limited the potential for wars of conquest.
But why is Pax Americana in decline?
We might be tempted to dwell on economic determinism and claim that the US has lost influence because it no longer dominates the global economy as it did in the past. However, although there was a sharp decline in the American share of world GDP between 1960 and 1980, that share has not shown a clear downward trend since then, although it has fluctuated with the dollar’s exchange rate.
In reality, our strong recovery from the Covid recession combined with the stumbles of some geopolitical rivals makes US economic dominance appear more durable than it has been in a long time. Remarkably, many observers now believe that the country’s GDP China, measured in dollars, may never surpass American value. (The Chinese economy is already larger in terms of domestic purchasing power, but less relevant in terms of global influence.)
Oh, and despite all the fuss about dedollarization, the US dollar actually seems to be more important than ever to the global economy.
Furthermore, one could argue that changes in the global economy have created new opportunities for the United States to exercise economic power. International relations experts Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman recently published “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy,” an insightful book that describes how modern globalization which creates far more complex forms of interdependence than traditional international trade puts the US at the center of “an international network of surveillance and control.”
US President Joe Biden speaks about his economic plan at a factory in Milwaukee, USA. Photo: Pete Marovich/NYT
And the Biden administration is not at all afraid to use American power. The help too Ukraine, albeit quite small in relation to the US budgetwas one of the main elements that thwarted Russian aggression; Washington has also aggressively used its financial and technological capabilities to impose sanctions on the regime. Wladimir Putin. In the recent crisis, Israelis, including Benjamin Netanyahupraised Biden for his immediate support, which likely explains why Trump is targeting a former political ally.
Additionally, Biden has taken a decidedly tough stance on Chinese technology. While Trump huffed in vain about China’s trade surpluses (which were never the problem), Biden has imposed sanctions that the Center for Strategic and International Studies calls “strangulation policies.” actively large parts of the Chinese technology industry a stranglehold with the intent to kill.”
If this were “projecting weakness,” what would projecting strength look like?
However, it is safe to say that the world no longer trusts U.S. promises and may not be as afraid of American threats as it once was. The problem, however, is not Biden, but the party that reflexively attacks him for everything that goes wrong.
Right now, the US is a superpower without a fully functioning government. Specifically: the Chamber of Deputies It has no president and therefore cannot pass laws, including on government funding and providing aid to US allies. The House of Representatives is paralyzed because extremist Republicans who refuse to recognize Biden’s legitimacy and promote chaos rather than participate in governance have made these tactics their own. Right now, it’s hard to imagine a House speaker without Democratic votes — but even the least extreme Republicans refuse to talk to the other side.
And even if Republicans somehow manage to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives, it seems certain that the person who takes on that role will have to promise the far right that he will betray Ukraine.
Given this political reality, how much confidence can a country have in U.S. assurances of support? How can we expect foreign enemies of democracy to fear the United States when they know that there are powerful forces here that share their contempt?
Yes, Pax Americana is in decline. But the problem is not a lack of strength at the top, but the enemy within. / TRANSLATION BY GUILHERME RUSSO