Friday, November 18, 2005

Legitimacy, Hegemony, Resolve

Cram over at dcat addresses this report about a new survey conducted by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Council on Foreign Relations. Among the conclusions: a "sharp rise in Americans’ distaste for the nation’s leading position in world affairs, which the survey indicates reflects a deeper distrust of foreign institutions in general."

We know what this is about, of course, and its an interesting inversion, I think, of Helmut's reflections on international legitimacy; here, what we're thinking about is internal. More and more folks within the United States--many clearly influenced by the recent series of profound failures by the current administration--think perhaps we might play a more modest international role.

Be sure to have a look at Cram's argument. Here's a bit:
Americans who simply want to close their eyes and facilitate these new trends do so at their peril. This country already suffers from massive trade deficits and outsourcing of jobs to more lucrative areas overseas, and one of the only reasons China does not reevaluate the value of the dollar (given how much of American debt it owns) that doing so would disrupt the global economic market. Our education system is barely even competitive any more compared to other countries and we are producing far fewer skilled workers than many other industrialized countries. In short, things seems to be going downhill.

But wait, you might ask. Wouldn’t America minding its own business improve our image in the world and thus prolong our dominance? The answer to this is no, although it is without question that the arrogance and incompetence of our current administration has certainly accelerated our downfall. The reality is that the more we retreat from international obligations, the more likely others will rush in to fill the void. We have already seen a reluctant China take on increasing importance in the North Korean problem. Ditto with Europe and Iran. This is only the beginning.

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