Aging American politics and the demolition man

Editor:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who died on May 26th, was the son of a Polish nobleman and diplomat. As a young boy, he was jolted from a life of privilege when his family was exiled after the Nazi invasion into a life of uncertainty.

However, as with all great men, he rose against adversity and became National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter. And over the many years since, he continued a post political career as a senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations, a lecturer and the author of many books.

To read Mr. Brzezinski’s books is to read the words of a builder. He saw America as the global architect whose role was “buttressing” and “stabilizing” a world being “unbalanced by emerging powers.” The post-war American hegemony rested upon a global contract of mutual beneÀt, backed up by military might. However, 60 years on, this sometimes thankless task now tempts many Americans to retreat, as he wrote in his 2012 book Strategic Vision – America and the Crisis of Global Power.

In that prophetic book, he imagined nativists leading America into a “garrison state mentality,” where even dovish Americans are tempted to retreat by a “self-righteous cultural hedonism.”

Nonetheless, the problem, argues Brzezinski is that no other country is ready to take on America’s burden of leadership. And this crisis of leadership creates movement in the body of global politics for new allegiances.

The purpose of his book offered in the preface, was to help extend for a few more years, before the inevitable time when America could no longer afford to police the world as it once did.

And the post-war alliances will shift and morph the past world order’s single superpower into a polycentric world order of regional spheres of inÁuence, all tied together with military alliances and trade agreements.

A new world order where Brzezinski says America will do itself more harm than good, if it continues to insist as it has on getting its own way.

To internationalists like Mr. Brzezinski, building a Pax Americana, around post-war alliance and formal institutions, was a good thing. He says in his book, America enjoys “precious privilege” as the designer of many multilateral organizations. No other country has the same veto rights as America, at the IMF and World Bank. No country has such power over which general runs NATO.

Brzezinski knew that for America to extend its global hegemony, it meant buying the consent of smaller nations by providing such global goods and services like Ànancing, military security and a system of international institutions with enforceable rules that underpin global trade fairly for all participants.

The post war Marshall Plan ethos has shown globalists proof that American hegemony is more secure when allies grow and prosper and has proved a worthwhile long term investment for America.

It’s hard to convey how strongly the worldview has changed with Donald Trump. In an interview two months before his death, Brzezinski called Trump’s view of American leadership, “chaotic, unclear, and unfocused.”

As a candidate, Trump accused foolish cowardly and self-dealing political leaders of failing to see that America holds all the cards when competing with rivals such as China, and that it should force more advantageous deals. As president, he congratulates himself a lot about winning.

But Brzezinski and Trump do agree on one thing though: American inÁuence is waning. Leaked briefings notes coming from the president’s inner circle make America sound like an aging and declining hegemony with a grievance. One that may squeeze a few more years of primacy, but only if America becomes tougher and more selÀsh.

During his Saudi Arabia trip, human rights took a back seat when Trump pointedly declared he was not here to lecture other countries on how they should live. Instead, he pointed to $110 billion in Saudi spending on American arms and military kit as proof he’s making America great again.

This does not sound like the words of an architect designing new global policy structure; it sounds like the words of a promoter wooing clients.

One way to understand Trump’s foreign policy is to consider his business career. According to his biographers, many of his recent property deals have been licensing agreements, in which the Trump name is slapped on a hotel or apartment complex designed and funded by others.

It seems now when Mr. Trump talks about new American-led partnerships, the underlying thinking is strikingly similar to how the Trump team describes statecraft. America sounds like a faded, but still valuable brand name, and they are willing to sell the right to bolt that American brand to any nation willing to pay for it. Trump doesn’t judge.

The leaked brieÀng notes talk about years of being taken advantage when other leaders foolishly allowed America to be pushed around. And with such serious contempt for foreign policies of previous administrations, from Obama going back to the days of Clinton and both Bushes, it is apparent that Trump is not here to build. Rather, he has come as the demolition man. Jon Peter Christoff, West Kelowna