Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Irrelevant America
Just this weekend I was talking to another American about this, this eerie sense we both have that the United States is becoming irrelevant in a weird way that we would never have foreseen growing up. Josh Rogin describes this in Bloomberg View:
Europe is facing a convergence of the worst crises since World War II, and the overwhelming consensus among officials and experts here is that the U.S. no longer has the will or the ability to play an influential role in solving them.
At the Munich Security Conference, the prime topics are the refugee crisis, the Syrian conflict, Russian aggression and the potential dissolution of the European Union’s very structure. Top European leaders repeatedly lamented that 2015 saw all of Europe’s problems deepen, and unanimously predicted that in 2016 they would get even worse.
“The question of war and peace has returned to the continent,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the audience, indirectly referring to Russian military interventions. “We had thought that peace had returned to Europe for good.”
What was missing from the conference speeches and even the many private discussions in the hallways, compared to previous years, was the discussion of what Europe wanted or even expected the U.S. to do. …
During the first day of the conference, the U.S. role in Europe was hardly mentioned in the public sessions. In the private sessions, many participants told me that European governments are not only resigned to a lack of American assertiveness, they also are now reluctantly accepting a Russia that is more present than ever in European affairs, and not for the better.
I know lots of people here will say, “See? This was Obama’s secret plan all along.” But it goes beyond that. It’s the collective impression people are getting from contact with America — not just our foreign policy but our culture, our political debates, our newspapers, our tourists, our movies. Not negative. Just irrelevant — whether or not this is a rational belief. And it’s not.
This is something I’ve felt in a personal way, though I’ve had trouble describing it. Just a subtle difference in people’s speech and reactions. Most of my life, people have noticed that I look out of place, or heard an accent, and asked me where I’m from. And obviously, all my life I’ve been saying, “I’m American,” and until recently, this has generally inspired some reaction — positive or negative, often strongly misinformed, but almost always some opinion about where America is, what it’s like, who the president is, what Americans are like. Even if the opinion clearly comes from nothing more than watching American movies or listening to American pop music, most people have at least heard of America.
But growingly, I feel as if the conversations are headed this way:
Random Foreigner: Where are you from?
Me: I’m American!
RF: How nice! Where did you learn such good English?
Me: Shouldn’t I be asking you that? Americans speak English. It’s our native language.
RF: [Puzzled.] Really? Oh! Crocodile Dundee!
Me: That’s Australia. America’s in the northern hemisphere. Clint Eastwood?
RF: Is he your prime minister?
Me: Clint Eastwood? Muhammed Ali, Elvis, Michael Jordan, Henry Kissinger … Monica Lewinsky? … Tiger Woods? Michael Jackson? You’ve heard of Michael Jackson, right? Have you heard of Facebook? We invented Facebook … McDonalds?
RF: I’ve never been much of a map person, I’m afraid. Bet this weather’s a shock, eh? Is this the first time you’ve ever seen snow?
Me: No, look, we’re a superpower. Barack Obama, you heard of him? Donald Trump? [RF shrugs apologetically] … Star Wars? Darth Vader, you’ve heard of Darth Vader, right? What about Steve Jobs? Haven’t you ever used a phone?
RF: Oh yes, of course! Do you like the food here? It must be hard to get used to, you’re used to spicier food, I bet. All those nice spices there …
Me: No, wait. You’ve heard of the United States of America, I guarantee it. 9/11? The World Trade Center? Great Satan ring any bells? Man on the moon? The Internet? Tear down this wall? [I’m getting frantic] USA! USA! USA! Come on … racist, imperialist, down with America —
RF: Oh, yes, that was terrible. Nelson Mandela was a great man. You must be proud of him. [thumbs-up gesture] Amandla!
Me: You don’t even hate us? You’ve got to have heard about us. Everyone’s …
Published in Culture, Foreign Policy, General, History, Military, Politics
Ha! Oh Claire, the US remains the world’s largest economy, and that gives it an unavoidable gravitational force. But as other powers emerge (which is healthy), the US’ pull becomes proportionally less, even if grows in absolute terms.
What stings, I suspect, is that it makes clear that it was always about what you could do (compared to the others) rather than about what you thought and believed.
Buck up! It’s not you, it’s them : – )
There’s nothing healthy about powers emerging. That’s what makes war inevitable.
Anyway, Miss Berlinski, I solved your problem easy: Invade Cuba already!
I agree that our nation has become a toothless tiger on the international stage, but don’t agree with your list of causes.
Nobody on the continent is wringing their hands because of our political speech or pop culture. Our culture has always been emulated worldwide since we exude freedom and invented most of what people really care about. They want iPhones, Facebook, software, Darth Vader, jet engines and McDonalds.
What has caused our lack of influence is contained in one word: Obama. He is our foreign policy dictator, and has been implementing his vision of a diminished America, a nation so fraught with imperialistic guilt that it has no place in world councils. Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary made clear that the motivations of Obama center on America’s supposed imperialism, and colonialism especially.
Good news, though; this anti-American freak squatting in our White House is about to move out. He couldn’t destroy or re-imagine our nation in his warped image in only 8 years, he could only superficially damage it. The current groundswell of middle class discontent is a harbinger of the real change that will reclaim the noble experiment that is our nation.
God Bless America.
Some of the crises facing Europe are self induced.
Self induced with open border and faux compassion. Allowing able bodied young men status as refugees when they should be fighting.
Beyond EU’s control.
Russia preys on weakness, always has. Europe’s failure to meet minimum defense spending for NATO in lieu of a welfare state makes them ripe for Russian aggression.
Solely the EU’s responsibility.
Yet the EU will change nothing.
I agree that the U.S. may be irrelevant in some of these crises. How is that not appropriate.
If American relevance is defined by our defending Europe so they don’t have to I think some irrelevance is a good thing.
Agree, but I think Titus is right: It makes great-power war, if not inevitable, a great deal more likely.
Well, Hegel said war is the health of the state, more or less, & he was not often wrong…
If you do not want to be ‘defending Europe’, you’re leaving us to the Russians. That’s a great thing to do for your kids, let’s say–pull themselves by their own bootstraps & all that–give them a chance to be their own greatest generation…
Titus, is Europe incapable of its own defense? I recall several nations are nuclear powers. If Europe cannot defend itself then is it really a Union or even sovereign nations?
It can, united. The problem is that it isn’t.
If Europe is going to reduce itself to a feckless protectorate, I demand tribute.
Ok, Obama is moving out. Good. But the forces that elected Obama (twice!) are still there and remain powerful. Whoever takes Obama’s place is going to have be much more wise and circumspect than George Bush if we expect to regain a leading role in the world. Another bungled war and our superpower status is history. And in the long run we need to remake our political culture.
Claire, I of course trust your judgment on the matter. How does the US influence Europe’s unity beyond NATO?
Well, NATO is huge. But I honestly don’t know: I’m observing something, not offering a prescription.
I don’t think the US can influence anything if Americans don’t want to influence it, and overwhelmingly the mood of the electorate is profoundly isolationist. I think this will lead to disaster, but I can’t prove that: It’s an instinct (or an emotion, properly), not a good argument. I can’t deny the evidence, though, of seeing who the frontrunning candidates are. The national mood is strongly in favor of a Fortress America strategy. I suspect that Obama’s been reflecting that much more accurately than I realized: I was out of touch with that.
I suspect you are correct and share your emotional/instinctual basis.
Less interventionist or Fortress America is hard to quantify.
We are tired of what feels like an endless parade of operations that never seem to end.
Additionally, the fiscal reality is that no nation with a debt:GDP ratio of 105% is a world power for very long no matter how large the GDP portion of that ratio.
My good man, what have your politicians done to the old world? You came like God’s wrath, in a chaos unknown since the barbarian invasions, & wiped out the tyrannies that were the last force in popular politics. I believe the Marshall plan was a prudent idea; Americans do not seem to have known much about Adenauer or liked him much; it does not seem that your politicians knew or cared much about de Gaulle. Compared to the demigod MacArthur in Japan, American political work after 1945 is remarkably incoherent. & yet was Europe or Japan the more foreign, unknown, incalculable of the two for your politicians & your people? I will not offer you opinions at length, because they would not be well received, I fear.
In fine, America spent generations disarming Europe, first by destroying armies, military capacities, & the fanaticism of tyranny; then by watching over generations of silliness accompanying the past-tragic work of rebuilding the world once hell had been abated, if not truly cleaned.
Your people seem not to care about any of these nations over which you wield such influence whose effect is disarmament of body & mind; your politicians seem satisfied with silliness like NATO. You pay more for that vice now than during the Cold War, when the thing was supposed to do something…
I don’t think Obama reflects the mood of America. I think the similarity in his agenda and the mood of America is more coincidence than skilled politics, but that is strictly a hunch.
There is no sovereignty in Europe. You destroyed it. You have turned men into children, it would seem, as an experiment with the future that is perpetual peace, always over the horizon. You have, you could say, made innocence where there had been guilt beyond what God & nature intended for man.
Let me remind you, your country has nuclear weapons, too. But that did not stop the Soviets from acquiring Cuba any more than it has stopped latter-day tyrants from employing Muslim terrorists to slaughter your countrymen. Arms do not make safety–the art of war does. & that you have made it impossible for Europeans to learn. I suppose you can always say, America can walk away from anywhere. Be it Cuba, Vietnam, or Iraq. Maybe from Europe, too, should it by some unforeseen shock come to that. I do not see the wisdom in any of these things. I know once your politicians boasted their wisdom & the greatness of your people. They are all put to shame now. But what of it, if the people do not mind & the politicians do not know it-
External threats should be a unifying force if they are disabused of an expectation of U.S. solving the problem for them. They need to be reminded that the U.S. let them bleed for three years before getting “over there” in both WW.
No need to do the NATO article 5 discussion again but the U.S. walking back the collective defense promise would unify the EU if anything would.
If I could LIke this 10000 I would. This is spot on. The most healthy thing in the world is American dominance.
Titus, I am not sure where you are going with this rant. Yes, we played a role in disarming Europe. Are you suggesting your lot in life would’ve been better under the Nazi regime?
True. Someone once said “United we stand, divided we fall.” Europe is not and never was united. Once we were; now we are not. Hence our fall from relevance. We thought of ourselves as “nation-builders” and the “world’s policeman” and became enablers. That has been our “role” and the result is therefore in part our responsibility. We have possessed the power to interfere and lacked the wisdom necessary to know when not to.
Yes, there was a sovereign in Europe, they called it the Third Reich.
For a disarmed continent they seem to have a do Ok with 2 permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
It seems to me I have spoken plainly. You ask, where is defense, where is sovereignty in this old world where once were empires? I tell you plainly: You destroyed it all. I do not deny that it was justice & necessity that drove you. I do not plead my own advantage in the matter, a petty concern. I merely say, you should learn the consequences of your greatness & if you learn you have authored your own perplexity, then you have to deal with that as well. Why does your country find it so much easier to fight the worst of injustice than to do help civilization come up again? Why are your countrymen & politicians not satisfied either to stay in this home of yours your people love so much they would not make conquests or colonies, or to learn the difficult art of empire on which civilization depends? Why did you let everything go to hell & replace that by an amusement park?
Surely, you know your politics as well as the next American. Do not the people whose judgment you trust–does not your own learning or reflection on foreign affairs–lead you to ask these questions? Is my rant such a strange thing for you to consider? Do not you recognize your politics?
America will always do the right thing. But only after it exhausts every other alternative. We need to think of Obama as one of the “other alternatives.”
I like this policy proposal. Has any candidate embraced it?
Hilariously demented.
I recognize our politics and you are speaking about 6 decades ago. Since then France and the UK have built nuclear weapons. The EU has constructed amazing fighter and commercial aircraft, deployed troops around the world, enjoy 2 permanent UN Security Council seats, introduced a common currency, and surrendered to Islam.
Where is the part about Europe unable to care for herself because of America?
The same number of candidates running on a platform of reducing the size, scope, and nominal (have to specify nominal before someone of somewhere explains how Republicans are spendthrifts, real, GDP, % of etc….) spending of the federal gov’t.
“If I could LIke this 10000 I would. This is spot on. The most healthy thing in the world is American dominance.”
Pony up man. Blood and treasure. You first.