Mar 12, 2022 05:44 AM
(This post was last modified: Mar 12, 2022 05:44 AM by C C.)
https://spectator.org/the-end-of-the-unipolar-moment/
INTRO: The defeat of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in World War II ushered in the Cold War era. For the four and a half decades between the defeat of fascism and the collapse of communism, global affairs unfolded within a bipolar backdrop of “mutually assured” destruction between the two nuclear superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a unipolar moment of unquestioned American economic, diplomatic, military, and geopolitical supremacy on the world stage.
Multiple generations of Americans, millennials and Gen Z alike, have come of political age in the unipolar moment. As a millennial born in 1989, I can say that the unipolar moment is all my generation has ever known.
The various manifestations of the unipolar moment, such as unparalleled American naval might to secure free trade on the high seas, unrivaled American dominance in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, and the incessant urge to militarily intervene in faraway lands on moralistic or humanitarian grounds, became de rigueur. Talk of “American exceptionalism,” though typically rooted in the constitutionalism and political theory of the American Founding, also began to take on a decidedly jingoistic hue. Though satire, the 2004 film Team America: World Police still captured the essence of the unipolar era’s zenith.
With the rise of China and the return of great-power competition, that unipolar era is, for all intents and purposes, now over. And the creeping realization that this is, in fact, the case will shock many inebriated from the fleeting high of Ronald Reagan’s triumph over communism, who would prefer to live in a state of nostalgia or denial. But it is imperative that American statesmen soberly grapple with the ramifications.
The first signs of the crumbling of the unipolar order came in the rubble of the feckless wars of moralistic regime change usually referred to as the “War on Terror.” The hubristic, militaristic excesses of the neoconservative elements of the Right (namely, Afghanistan and Iraq) and the humanitarian internationalist Left (namely, Libya), the failures of which were clearly evident at least a decade ago but which nonetheless were encapsulated by last year’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, have taken a huge toll on the American citizenry.
The manifest failures of the regime-change wars cost America huge sums in blood and treasure, but arguably even more important was the long-term symbolism conveyed: America is not all-powerful, and America is incapable of crafting the world in its own image.
That sober conclusion is only bolstered when one considers all the domestic woes our depleted citizenry faces: decades-high inflation, skyrocketing out-of-wedlock birthrates, a porous southern border, escalating homicide and violent crime rates, and the metastasis of overtly racist “critical race theory” drivel and the deeply divisive tenets of modern gender ideology.
Put simply, with elementary school teachers telling white students that they are “spirit-murdering” their black classmates and with “drag queen story hours” popping up in local public libraries, now is not the best time for Americans to be in the “values exportation” business.
China’s rise over the past decade under the leadership of Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has been remarkable (and harrowing)... MORE - details)
INTRO: The defeat of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in World War II ushered in the Cold War era. For the four and a half decades between the defeat of fascism and the collapse of communism, global affairs unfolded within a bipolar backdrop of “mutually assured” destruction between the two nuclear superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a unipolar moment of unquestioned American economic, diplomatic, military, and geopolitical supremacy on the world stage.
Multiple generations of Americans, millennials and Gen Z alike, have come of political age in the unipolar moment. As a millennial born in 1989, I can say that the unipolar moment is all my generation has ever known.
The various manifestations of the unipolar moment, such as unparalleled American naval might to secure free trade on the high seas, unrivaled American dominance in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, and the incessant urge to militarily intervene in faraway lands on moralistic or humanitarian grounds, became de rigueur. Talk of “American exceptionalism,” though typically rooted in the constitutionalism and political theory of the American Founding, also began to take on a decidedly jingoistic hue. Though satire, the 2004 film Team America: World Police still captured the essence of the unipolar era’s zenith.
With the rise of China and the return of great-power competition, that unipolar era is, for all intents and purposes, now over. And the creeping realization that this is, in fact, the case will shock many inebriated from the fleeting high of Ronald Reagan’s triumph over communism, who would prefer to live in a state of nostalgia or denial. But it is imperative that American statesmen soberly grapple with the ramifications.
The first signs of the crumbling of the unipolar order came in the rubble of the feckless wars of moralistic regime change usually referred to as the “War on Terror.” The hubristic, militaristic excesses of the neoconservative elements of the Right (namely, Afghanistan and Iraq) and the humanitarian internationalist Left (namely, Libya), the failures of which were clearly evident at least a decade ago but which nonetheless were encapsulated by last year’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, have taken a huge toll on the American citizenry.
The manifest failures of the regime-change wars cost America huge sums in blood and treasure, but arguably even more important was the long-term symbolism conveyed: America is not all-powerful, and America is incapable of crafting the world in its own image.
That sober conclusion is only bolstered when one considers all the domestic woes our depleted citizenry faces: decades-high inflation, skyrocketing out-of-wedlock birthrates, a porous southern border, escalating homicide and violent crime rates, and the metastasis of overtly racist “critical race theory” drivel and the deeply divisive tenets of modern gender ideology.
Put simply, with elementary school teachers telling white students that they are “spirit-murdering” their black classmates and with “drag queen story hours” popping up in local public libraries, now is not the best time for Americans to be in the “values exportation” business.
China’s rise over the past decade under the leadership of Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has been remarkable (and harrowing)... MORE - details)