The Situation Today

Our Global System: Its Value and Why America Must Lead

In the seven decades since World War II the world has seen a historically unprecedented period of economic prosperity, lifting billions out of poverty. Though hardly peaceful, the era has avoided the recurrence of cataclysmic global warfare. The spread of liberal democracy, free enterprise, human rights, and the rule of law has become the dominant course of politics on all continents. America has, no less than other countries, enjoyed the fruits of that progress. The United States has always stood at the center, the indispensable motive force behind the political, security, and economic alliances and institutions holding the global system together. Historic threats now face that system, and not just driven by external challenges by authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China or by extremist Islamist movements such as ISIS, but also from within America.  


President Trump appears to believe that most aspects of the global political, security, and economic system are stacked against America’s interests and he therefore seeks to dismantle it. The Trump Administration would replace it with a non-system of bi-lateral transactional relationships between America and individual countries, with America always negotiating the dominant position. This zero-sum system has only one nationalistic and protectionist objective: America First and Only (1). The promotion of democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and free and fair trade would seem to be only a peripheral goal in President Trump’s conception of world politics. Just as the United States is indispensable to sustaining the world’s political, security, and economic system of alliances and institutions, America under Donald Trump can do that system the most damage in the least amount of time, as evidenced already in the Administration’s early weeks by his disparagement of NATO, the EU, the United Nations, and individual allies like Australia, Japan, Korea, and Germany. He has also expressed a desire for America to embrace Russia (2). This, despite the fact that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is engaged in a campaign against the West to degrade popular trust in democracy and to split alliance partners away from essential geo-political institutions like NATO and the EU. Russia’s cyber-warfare against America in the 2016 presidential election is just one tactical example of Russia’s strategy to attack the liberal democrat global order (3). 


The mission of Indispensable U.S.A. is to marshal grass-roots citizen support behind America’s leadership of the international system of alliances and institutions that have served our country, and our allies, so well for so long. Indispensable U.S.A. is forward, not backward, looking, and will support the strengthening of the international system to secure its effectiveness in a changing world. We will stand steadfast against efforts to destroy this system, whether by the Trump Administration or by foreign adversaries. In so doing we aim to secure liberal democracy, free enterprise, and the rule of law around the world for generations to come.


Footnotes

  1. Evidence that the Trump Administration seeks to retreat from America's leadership of the global world order includes: (a) Trump's dismissal of NAFTA as the "worst trade deal ever signed anywhere", Trump/Clinton debates; (b) exit from the TTP trade deal early in Trump's presidency; (c) Trump's dismissal of NATO as "obsolete" because "it was designed many, many years ago", and because members don't contribute funds to US protection, London Times/Bild interview on January 16, 2017; (d) dismissal of the EU as "basically a vehicle for Germany," IBID; (e) Trump on the need for protectionism: "We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappears over the horizon... Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families," Inaugural Address.
  2. Among numerous other statements by President Trump on these subjects: (a) "I'd love to continue to defend Japan... and defend South Korea, but I'd like them to pay up.  They have lots of money, both these nations; we take in Japan's cars by the millions," comments in May 2016; (b) Trump on sanctions against Russia: "If you get along and Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody's doing really great things," comments on January 14, 2017.
  3. Examples of Russian cyber attacks against other democratic nations: Estonia 2017, Germany 2016-17, Ukraine 2014-17, France 2016-17, Czech Republic 2017 as reported by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and other media outlets.