BACK in the Donald Trump years, I pointed out that the then United States president tried to deescalate America’s military presence overseas. He didn’t end the Forever Wars (mostly because he kept appointing people who didn’t agree with his foreign policy), but he tried and he did a lot of good.
Now, that the US establishment is back in power, they’ve begun to undo all of Trump’s work in the foreign policy sphere.
Joe Biden has not only re-started tensions in Afghanistan and Syria, his administration may also be starting something in Donbass. These are all presented in the name of securing “human rights”, “regional stability”, or if those fail, “fighting terrorism/fascism”.
But America’s institutions have been described as suffering from a crisis of legitimacy (see the Jan. 6 “insurrection”), and countries and empires that try to fight foreign wars while their houses are a mess tend to end up in a messy situation.
I’ve said before that the era of Pax Americana is coming to an end, and that it’s end will come whether Americans want it or not. I still hold to that analysis. The world is increasingly become multilateral, and fragile at the same time.
This new order is presented as a more “inclusive” system by some analysts, but don’t be fooled. It’s the return of the anarchic state of foreign relations one ruled by power politics and the effective dissolution of 20th century global institutions.
The Biden administration is trying to hold on to a dying world, and the more it does that, the faster it will erode American Power, which is not infinite. Once America loses the ability to project power overseas or sustain global markets, the age of Pax Americana ends with them. That’s an inevitability.
So, as Biden’s administration tries to restart pointless war, one only hopes that they don’t start something that all of us will regret./PN
