A year or so after the ‘liberation’ of Iraq, an unnamed senior Bush administration official (later revealed to be Karl Rove) boasted: ‘We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.’ Yet a decade later, America’s power and influence has diminished considerably and the American people are suffering from foreign policy fatigue.
The greenback is weak, the debt mountain is of Himalayan proportions, the credit rating is downgraded and economic growth is exceptionally sluggish for a nation that is four years out of a recession. The Chinese own more and more of the US debt and they show no inclination to heed Washington’s demands to revalue the yuan or end their cyber-espionage or prevent North Korea from using nuclear weapons. And whereas two decades ago US military power was universally considered awesome, today the world is much more aware of its costs and limitations, and it is decidedly less impressed.
The ‘reality’ is that the age of US unipolarity, which began with the collapse of Soviet communism, is being increasingly replaced by a world populated by new assertive players, such as China, India, -Brazil, Turkey and, if its intervention in Syria is any guide, even Russia. Meanwhile, Americans are tired of the world. In last year’s presidential candidate, foreign policy was the dog that did not bark.
If I were asked to nominate a book on America’s role in the post-Iraq-war era, Richard N. Haass’s Foreign Policy Begins at Home would join a very short list (along with Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World and Andrew Bacevich’s The Limits of Power.) A high-ranking strategist in the administrations of both George Bush Sr and Jr and the long-serving president of the Council of Foreign Relations, Haass is a self-described ‘card-carrying member of the foreign policy establishment’.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in