Making America Great Again and Global Security in 2018: The Lessons for Nigeria
Today, the whole world is currently watching a nuclear cinema in which North Korea and the United States are the main actors, blowing the trumpet, singing and dancing, as well as dictating the tunes. China and Russia are the ones beating the drums and operating as umpires.The European Union, which is waiting to replace the US as the new centre of global power is the leading group of spectators. The European Union, as well as China and Russia are all engaged in strategic calculations to also replace the United States as the first global power. And most unfortunately, President Donald Trump is myopically facilitating it with his policy of Making America Great Again by engaging in a manu militari cow boy policies.This type of policy is most unhelpful to the cause of the great people of America
Maintenance of international peace and security has always remained the cardinal objective of the United Nations since its founding in 1945. However, peace must first exist internationally before it can be maintained. In the same vein, security cannot be maintained if it does not exist already. Most unfortunately, there is no global peace as at today. Even though the word, ‘international,’ has different usages in terms of scope (plurilateral, bilateral, trilateral, multilateral, etc), and therefore generally implies a global conception, there is no region of the world where there are no crises and conflicts.
The fact that there was no inter-state war in the period from 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989, gives a wrong impression that there was no world war or that there was global peace. True, there was no international or inter-state war but that did not mean that there was no world war. World war existed only on piecemeal basis in the name of intra-state or civil war. This is so because the internal conflicts were not only many, but were also on the increase..
Put differently, there are not only several civil wars, but also increasing threats of global war to the extent that the year 2018 may become the most devastating in terms of violent effects in the event of outbreak of a nuclear war. Slave trading has re-emerged in Africa through Libya. It is no longer enslavement of the black man by the white colonialists, it is now commercial enslavement of the black man by theArab Libyans onAfrican soil.
Western Europe, particularly the European Union, is fraught with the crises of European unity, unwanted immigration of foreigners to Europe and unwanted struggle for self-determination within the concert of Europe. The ultimate objective of the making of European unity right from 1951 till date is being challenged by Brexit and the struggle for self-identity of the Catalans in Spain. The processes of final withdrawal of United Kingdom from the European Union have begun. Even within the United Kingdom, the Scottish are already at logger head with the London authorities on the need for Scotland to also break away from the union.
In theAmericas, the relationship between the United States and Mexico is far from being warm. The relationship became worse since the election and presidency of Donald Trump. United States’ relationship with North Korea is already pointing to the possibility of an unprecedented nuclear war. The threat of nuclear war was first manifested in 1962 with the Cuban nuclear crisis in which the former Soviet Union tried to mount nuclear arms in Cuba, but with the ultimate objective of targeting the United States. This was a manifestation of the Cold War. The 14-day crisis was well managed by the US and there was no nuclear war.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing by the United States did not fit well to be described as a nuclear war. Japan attacked US Pearl Harbour with conventional weapons, and for that matter, without provocation and before the United States ever decided to enter into the Second World War on the side of theAllied Powers. In reaction, and in the spirit of legitimate self-defence, the United States used what it had, atomic weapons, which had never been used before the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The devastating effect of the US attack compelled the Japanese to immediately surrender without reservation. Consequently, there was neither an atomic nor nuclear war up till this day.
Today, the whole world is currently watching a nuclear cinema in which North Korea and the United States are the main actors, blowing the trumpet, singing and dancing, as well as dictating the tunes. China and Russia are the ones beating the drums and operating as umpires. The European Union, which is waiting to replace the US as the new centre of global power is the leading group of spectators. The European Union, as well as China and Russia are all engaged in strategic calculations to also replace the United States as the first global power.And most unfortunately, President Donald Trump is myopically facilitating it with his policy of MakingAmerica GreatAgain by engaging in a manu militari cow boy policies. This type of policy is most unhelpful to the cause of the great people ofAmerica.
In the Middle East, the Israelo-Arab dispute over a homeland for the Palestinian people has not allowed for peace to reign, not to talk about maintaining it. Many reasons can be adduced for this. First, the Arabs have always exaggerated and miscalculated in terms of policy making. When the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was to be translated into action at the end of World War II, the Israelis (Jews) accepted to be reconstituted into a State of Israel. TheArabs rejected the offer and opted to carry war to the borders of the new State. Rightly or wrongly, the State of Israel began to exist in consonance with the Biblical provisions as provided for in the Book of Zacharia, Chapter 2.
Three points are noteworthy in this chapter. Verses 1 and 2 remind us of how Zacharia saw a man ‘with a measuring line in his hand.’ The measuring line was to ‘measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.’ In Jerusalem, the House of the Lord is to be built and the various dimensions and descriptions of the walls and household items are contained in Chapters 40-46 of the Book of Ezekiel. Perhaps more interestingly, there is supposed to be an area of Jerusalem that has to be set aside as holy and for which there are well prescribed regulations as also provided for in Chapter 45.
Verse 1 of Chapter 45 says. ‘moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all borders thereof round about.’
Apart from the area required for sanctuary, ‘five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about, and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof (vide verse 2), there is also ‘the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand’ which shall be the ‘sanctuary and the most holy place.’And most importantly, verse 4 says ‘the holy portion of the land shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the Lord; and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.’
On the basis of these biblical provisions, is the 1917 Balfour Declaration in fulfilment of the foregoing predictions? If they are, who owned the territory of Palestine before its partitioning? If part of the territory of Palestine has been carved out and given to the Jews, why is there no unanimity of purpose in ensuring that the Palestinians are also given a homeland for the purposes of a State of Palestine? In light of the foregoing biblical references, is Israel right or wrong to shift its capital to Jerusalem? If there had not been war in 1948 which enabled Israel to forcefully occupy the western part of Jerusalem, and if there had not been the Yom Kippur war of 1973, which again enabled Israel to forcefully occupy Eastern Jerusalem, would there have been any basis for consideration of Jerusalem as capital of Israel? TelAviv has been playing host to all diplomatic missions in Israel, including that of the United States. What now prompted the United States to want to move its diplomatic mission from TelAviv to Jerusalem? The United States is nothing more than an agent provocateur in this case.
Asecond reason ofArab miscalculation is the underestimation of the capacity and capability of Israel. TheArabs always think in terms of military capability and therefore always looking at the small territorial size of Israel. Unfortunately, the United States is always giving active support to the Israelis, thus implying that anyArab attack is necessarily also an attack on the United States and its allies. This point raises the third reason: the role of the United states as a mediator in the resolution of the Israelo-arab conflict. Peace has not and cannot be forthcoming with the United States acting as a mediator in whatever capacity because of its partisan interests.
Afourth reason is the perception of theArab’s mania of handling the Palestinian question byAfrican leaders. For instance, Nigeria spearheaded the pro-Arab lobby in favour of the Palestinian struggle. In fact, in solidarity with Egypt as anAfrican country, Nigeria strained diplomatic ties with Israel. However, when Egypt was to solve the problem, she struck a deal with the United States and Israel in Camp David, but without informing Nigeria or carrying her along. Even though Nigeria has consistently been supporting the Palestinian struggle, many policy makers who are in support of Israel now do so because of how Nigerians are being mistreated in theArab world. Reports of enslavement of Nigerians in Libya now strengthen their position further more.
In essence, the point being made here is that the world of today is that of no peace. Peace has been overtaken by international terrorism, and particularly by state terrorism. It is within the context of this global insecurity that the US President, Mr. Donald John Trump, wants to makeAmerican great again. Can he makeAmerica great again by removing the foregoing threats to global security or by deepening the threats? How does he want to makeAmerica great again? This question is quite pertinent at this juncture because there have been various manufactured goods, varying from birthday gifts to birthday gag gifts, specially produced to makeAmerica Great since 1927. Being an acknowledged business man, does Donald Trump intend to come up with new economic products in makingAmerica GreatAgain? In fact, what are the dynamics of ‘greatness’ in the context of a nation state?
Making America Great Again: the Donald Trump’s Experience
‘The genesis of ‘MakingAmerica GreatAgain’ (MAGA) is traceable in recent times to the 1980 Donald Reagan’s presidential campaign when he said ‘Let’s MakeAmerican GreatAgain.’ By that time, the United States had a battered economy that was largely characterised by stagflation. Consequently, MAGAwas to serve as a springboard for purposes of Reagan’s electioneering.
In 1992, Wikipedia has it that Bill Clinton used the phrase during his presidential campaigns but not as a slogan of the campaign and that Hilary Clinton used the phrase during her 2008 presidential primary campaign, but criticised it in her 2016 presidential campaigns as a racist ‘dog whistle’.
For Donald Trump, MAGAis a different kettle of fish entirely. In December 2011 when Donald Trump was contemplating running for the White House, he said he must leave all his options open, because above all else, ‘we must makeAmerica GreatAgain.’ In making America Great, he started by printing on his campaign caps, MAGA. Thereafter, on November 7, 2012, ‘the day after Barack Obama won his re-election against Mitt Romney’ Donald Trump formally began to use the expression, but generally, without the word ‘again,’ that is, ‘Make America Great.’ But considering that this new expression implied thatAmerica was never great, Donald Trump went back to the old expression, MAGA, and registered it as a trade name, claiming not to know about an earlier usage of the expression by Donald Reagan.
As noted by Wikipedia, ‘on November 12, he signed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office requesting exclusive rights to use the slogan for political purposes. It was registered as a service mark on July 14, 2015, after which Trump formally began his 2016 presidential campaign and demonstrated that he was using the slogan for the purpose stated on the application.’ This was how MAGAhas been popularised, especially through the social media by selling Donald Trump’s campaign hats on which MAGAis printed in white letters and sold for each $25 on its website.
And perhaps more of concern here is that, following the election of Donald Trump, his presidential transition was established at ‘greatagain.gov,’ while Donald Trump himself noted that his January 2020 re-election campaign would be ‘keepAmerica Great,’ which was the tagline for a film called, ‘The Purge: Election Year.’Alawyer has been directed to also register this as a trade mark. In this regard, will there be a good basis for the re-election of Donald Trump come 2020? For purposes of electoral campaigns, yes, ‘KeepingAmerica Great’ cannot but remain relevant. It will be needed as a tool of campaign. However, whatever the tools of campaign would be in 2020, there is no dismissing the problems of how US foreign policy is conducted and managed under Donald Trump, and especially the animosities that have come to characterise the United States foreign relations.