The End of the Road

Iraq, Afghanistan, BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Syria. Various events and phenomena, but all have two things in common: they expose a consistent dimenssion of the international affairs and they are enforced either by undermining the American interests, or simply by ignoring them. Is this the end of US global domination? Let us, for now, just state the fact that this outcome was foreseen, somehow, in the late '90s, when Russia, despite the hardships of Yeltsin regime, actually warned for many times on the risks of a system governed by a single "world gendarme".

Moreover, there were other multiple hints, even if minor, but yet significant, on the discrepancies between US military capabilities and their poor ability to positively influence world development.  Starting with the ridiculously complex security procedures required when a US delegation travels abroad - with no other correspondent on this planet - one can not help notice the failure of almost all political solutions negotiated by the US (Palestinian Dossier, Kosovo, South Sudan, to offer only a few examples). What is that if not a proof that US leadership is seriously falling apart?

The US attempts to reduce UN role to that of a simple crippled bagger, obviously against the background of the operations in former Yugoslavia or Iraq (neither under UN mandate), have been unsuccessuful, too. These days it is only the veto within the Security Council which impedes the world organization to decide against the interests of the United States or even condamn or fine America. However, General Assembly are successful in passing, more and more often, by simple majority, a set of resolutions which are not supported by Washington - Palestinian flag inside UN HQ, for instance.

One can say now that the mere hope for an absolute hegemony, after the collapse of the USSR and the communist regimes, has been nothing but an immense illusion. US military supremacy is a relative debate. Potomac essential weapon, the nuclear bomb, can not be a solution unless you want to live with the spectrum of an entire desert across the planet because of the very likely response from the adversary.

The recent financial crisis indicated another clue: USA is not capabile to support even the closest allies in EU. Europeans were abandoned and had  to come ashore by themselves, a fact which emphasizes America's lack of economic grip, beyond the aforementioned political limitations. White House "cold" partenerships with Germany, France, Italy or Spain, after a crisis which had its origins across the Atlantic but stroke in the heart of Europe, come to sustain my theory.

Will the emerging countries succeed to eventually bring US unofficial global hegemony down? The answer does not only depend on their ability to coordinate their efforts, but the desire to offer the world a more generous and brighter horizon than the Americans.