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https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/making-america-alone-again-alliances-margaret-macmillan>
"Henry Kissinger once compared himself to the lone cowboy who rode into town to
sort out the bad guys. But the U.S. secretary of state, who also served as
national security adviser, knew different when it came to dealing with major
powers. His hero was the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, who somehow
brought together the unlikely combination of Austria, the United Kingdom,
Prussia, Russia, and a number of even smaller allies and their incompatible
leaders into the alliance that finally defeated Napoleon in 1815. As Kissinger
understood, even lone rangers need friends.
It is an insight that appears to be lost on U.S. President Donald Trump. Since
returning to office in January, Trump has called the United States’ closest
allies cheaters and freeloaders. Japan and other Asian trading partners, he
insists, are “very spoiled”; immediate North American neighbors stand accused
of exporting drugs and criminals. He freely and publicly labels the leaders of
some of the United States’ most important democratic partners as has-beens,
weak, or dishonest, while heaping praise on autocrats he finds easier to deal
with, such as Hungarian President Viktor Orban (“a very great leader”),
Salvadoran strongman Nayib Bukele (“a great friend”), North Korean dictator Kim
Jong Un (“a smart guy”), and—at least until very recently—Russian President
Vladimir Putin, whom he has called “a genius” and “very savvy” in attacking
Ukraine. In what would have been unthinkable in previous administrations,
including Trump’s first, the United States in February even sided against its
own democratic allies and with Russia and other authoritarian states, such as
North Korea and Belarus, in voting against a UN resolution that condemned
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and upheld the latter’s sovereignty and
territorial integrity.
Perhaps most baffling, at a time when Washington is trying to contain China and
shore up U.S. defenses in the Indo-Pacific, the administration is preparing
punitive tariffs on South Korea and Japan, the United States’ closest Asian
allies, as well as on a sweeping list of European partners it is trying to keep
away from Beijing. U.S. allies around the world are also rattled by the public
musings of Trump and members of his cabinet that the so-called nuclear umbrella
under which the American nuclear deterrent was a guarantee for their defense is
no longer a sure thing. Such is now the level of doubt that in July, France and
the United Kingdom announced a new agreement to begin providing extended
nuclear deterrence in Europe for themselves, and allies such as South Korea,
Poland, and even Japan have begun to contemplate acquiring their own nuclear
weapons.
The past offers plenty of examples of world powers falling out with erstwhile
alliance partners or seeking new ones. But it’s hard to think of a case in
which the leader of a major alliance has so casually and brutally cast aside
allies that, for the most part, have been dependable and have accepted its
writ. If the United States wants Canadian or Greenlandic resources, those have
always been available. Threatening annexation is counterproductive, stirring up
anti-Americanism as it has already done. Washington’s NATO allies, it is true,
have not been spending enough on defense but that is partly because the United
States has insisted for decades on having the dominant role. And when pressed,
as at the most recent NATO summit in June, members of the transatlantic
alliance have increased their defense budgets, or pledged to do so, to levels
that could not have been imagined only a few years ago."
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
