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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EMPIRE AND AN EMPIRE OF THE EAST?

WHERE DID WE GET TO BEFORE THE BREAK?

IS IT JUST ABOUT TERRTITORY (UKRAINE AND TAIWAN) OR IS IT ABOUT IDEAS (FREEDOM VERSUS DICTATORSHIP) AS WELL?

WHERE IS ALL THIS HEADING?

UGLY AMERICAN OR EMPIRE OF LIBERTY? – THERE ARE TWO BIG STORIES ABOUT THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD TODAY. FOR CENTURIES, THE UNITED STATES DENIED THAT IT WAS AN EMPIRE. NOW MOST COMMENTATORS ARE HAPPY TO DESCRIBE IT AS AN EMPIRE, BUT AS A DIFFERENT EMPIRE TO, SAY, THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

CHINA AND USA RUB UP AGAINST EACH OTHER IN THE SOUTH CHINA AND EAST CHINA SEAS.

SINCE THE 1500S, WHAT IS NOW THE UNITED STATES LOOKED LIKE A EUROPEAN EMPIRE

REMEMBER THAT THERE HAS ONLY BEEN A UNITED STATES SINCE 1776. Of course, the Americas were settled from Asia and by roaming 20,000 years hunter ago. gatherer bands between 11 Another was Europe thing and to not think China about that is the conquered fact that the it Americas in the 1500s. For the best part of one thousand years, 300- with wars, 1300, no migrations Europe unity was (except and a squabbling invasions. Christianity) jumble and of states many EUROPEANS WERE CLOSEST TO THE AMERICAS – CLOSER THAN THE ROMANS, INDIANS OR CHINESE! EUROPEANS WERE RELATIVELY POOR AND WARLIKE WITH POWERFUL INCENTIVES TO SAIL THE OCEAN AND TO ROB RESOURCES WHERE THEY COULD.

Vasco Da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, making it clear that there was an easy sea route to the Indian Ocean, India and the SPICE ISLANDS. THE MONGOLS HAD BLOCKED THE LAND ROUTE – THE OLD SILK ROAD. It opened up sea routes to the East Indies for the spice trade. Da Gama’s objective was a faster route to the East African slave trades. Da Gama was a wealthy slave trader out for personal gain.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IN 1492 HOPED TO SAIL WEST TO THE RICHES OF ASIA BUT HE HAD UNDERESTIMATED THE SIZE OF THE EARTH BY ABOUT HALF. AND COLUMBUS DID NOT REALISE THAT THE AMERICAN CONTINENT STOOD IN HIS WAY. BY THE 1500S EUROPEANS HAD COLONISED JUST ABOUT ALL OF THE AMERICAS AND DISPOSSESSED THE NATIVE AMERICANS.

THE

SINO-RUSSIAN CHALLENGE

TOTHE

WORLDORDER MATIOMALIDENTITIES,BILATERALRELATIONS

GILBERTROIM

STEPHENF.COHEN

WAR WITH RUSSIA? FROMPUTIN&UKRAINETO

TRUMP&RUSSIAGATE

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It was not long before the Colombian Exchange brought great wealth to Europe and disease and slavery to the Americas. The marriage of racism and imperialism led European to enforce widespread enslavement and exploitation of millions of people in the Americas. Diseases such as smallpox did the heavy lifting in terms of facilitating European imperialism.

Doris Lee, ‘Thanksgiving’ (ca. 1935). Gratitude in the face of challenges. 1620 the pilgrims compared their exodus to the exodus from Egypt. Half of the people on the Mayflower died from starvation over the next year.

LEGACY OF SLAVERY HAUNTS THE UNITED STATES AND ITS SELF-PROCLAIMED IDEAL OF FREEDOM. 1619 was the year slaves first came to what is now the United States. Critics argues that the whole purpose of the American project was racial domination and slavery. It is

a

a

negative

image

of American

that

has

gained

traction.

MAP OF THE UNITED STATES WHEN IT FIRST CAME INTO EXISTENCE BACK IN 1776

THERE REALLY WAS A HAMILTON BEFORE THE MUSICAL

Alexander Hamilton was one of the FOUNDING FATHERS f American democracy in 1776.

The United States really was a TRAILBLAZER, the first modern state DEMOCRACY, to abolish and give monarchy, the vote to set qualified up a adult REPRESENTATIVE men. Democracy over the next two hundred years would become a big military thing muscle with the for United Team Democracy. States acting as the inspiration and And what was the real Hamilton famous for? In The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton noted that the United Kingdom and the United States were both islands and this made them uniquely well placed to embrace the concept

f FREEDOM. ACCORDING states like Russia TO HAMILTON, and China the and problem Germany with were big continental that they were always fighting each other - constant wars encouraged the rise of dictatorial rule. By contrast, Britain and the United States had no dangerous borders and therefore no dictator! The United States was committed to preventing the rise of a king or dictator – that is why power in America to this day is the divided Supreme three Court. ways between the President, the Congress and the Hamilton USA needed also had to sound use PROTECTIONIST economic advice, tariffs which to protect was that its infant industries from European competition.

FOR FIFTY YEARS, THE BIG ENEMY OF THE UNITED STATES WAS BRITAIN – SEEMS INCREDIBLE NOW. IN THE WAR OF 1812, THE BRITISH BURNED WASHINGTON BEFORE AGREEING TO LEAVE!

FLAWED DEMOCRACY THOMAS States and JEFFERSON a brilliant was Enlightenment the third president thinker/writer of the United who

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f the 1776 American created "We hold equal, these that Truths they to are be endowed self-evident, by their that Creator all Men with are certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness ... " The UNITED STATES was supposed to be a ‘new’ and ‘different’ nation founded upon principles of freedom and EQUALITY. However, there was SLAVERY since 1619 and it was the basis

f the southern economy – cotton, sugar etc. Jefferson owned over 600 enslaved people during his

lifetime, inherited his the family most plantation of any American and needed president a workforce! – he had Jefferson also kept hidden his long-term relationship with his six slave children Sally Hemmings with her. after his wife died and fathered at least Decades later, Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings’s children Jefferson did not grant freedom to any other enslaved family unit. It is not a good look from today’s perspective on slavery and hypocrisy.

penned Declaration the of Independence: immortal words

OL’ MAN RIVER • QUESTION: GEOGRAPHICAL DIFFERENT BETWEEN

WHAT IS THE BIG THE UNITED STATES AND AUSTRALIA?

ANSWER: THE AMERICANS HAVE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND NOT A DESERT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CONTINENT. IN 1803, THE AMERICANS BOUGHT THE MIDDLE OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT FROM A CASH-STRAPPED NAPOLEON OF FRANCE. It is called the Louisiana Purchase and was centred on the Mississippi River and the mid-west from Canada to New Orleans. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE cost 15 million dollars – a bargain for some of the best farmland in the world. In 1867, the United States purchased ALASKA from Russia for seven million dollars, another bargain.

BRAVE NEW

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WORLD Did the United States travel a SPECIAL PATH (Sonderweg as the Germans would say) historically? wanted America more has always FREEDOM. generated excitement among European visitors who It all started with a tour of the United States in 1831 by a famous French writer Alexis de Tocqueville. He described America as ‘exceptional’ influential In 1835, De books Tocqueville ever that wrote sang ‘Democracy the praises of in America America’, and one democracy. of the most What struck de Tocqueville was that the United States was more egalitarian than Europe. This was because European migrants left behind their class system in Europe. Class did not matter in this new rich land because there was so much

pportunity, social mobility unmatched anywhere else in the world. by liberty. In the swearing United allegiance States, it was to the possible new nation to become and American its ideology citizens of individual simply "The position of the Americans is quite exceptional,”, wrote Tocqueville. Of course, there was still slavery, patriarchy, prejudices of all kinds…

CHOSEN BY GOD?

O’SULLIVAN In 1845, a newspaper came up with man a named memorable JOHN MANIFEST phrase to sum DESTINY. up American history – means, If you are it is wondering similar to what ‘inevitable’ MANIFEST or ‘obvious’ or ‘clearly going to happen’ The 1846-48 war against Mexico drove the Mexicans out of Texas.

Americans were finally Native Great dispossessed Plains were of all conquered their lands in the as 1880s the – as one Native American leader famously put it – ‘the Americans made many promised promises, to but take they our only land kept and they one. did’. They The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898. States 1898 war in against control Spain of Cuba put the and United the Philippines.

The Americans took about half of Mexico’s territory in a war in the late 1840s. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican- American War (1846-1848) and was signed on February 2, 1848, at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital where the Mexican government had fled. The present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming plus the south and west of Texas were originally native American and then Mexican before being conquered by the United States.

THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR The United States opportunistically exploited geopolitical vacuums first of all in the Americas and then in the Pacific. You the might Spanish not American know that War the of United 1898 States – the defeated Americans Spain won in the control war over was about Philippines, at least Puerto in theory). Rico, Guam and Cuba (which The victory over Spain meant that America’s possessions in the Pacific stretched from Hawaii to the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, Wake island). Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson called the new Pacific lands COLONIES. But the idea of America being a colonial power created power problems that for defeated America’s the self-image British Empire as the in 1776. anti-colonial rebel So instead of colonies, Hawaii and the Philippines became simply OVERSEAS TERRITORIES. Hawaii and Alaska became states in 1959 and now appear on virtually all published maps of the country. American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Marianas remain TERRITORIES. The Philippines in independent but closely linked to the United States. Its critics argue that it the empire. United States is just another

THUS. THE UNITED STATES CLAIMED A PACIFIC EMPIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE UNITED STATES TOOK CALIFORNIA FROM MEXICO, ALASKA FROM RUSSIA, THE PHILIPPINES FROM SPAIN, AND SEVERAL ISLANDS FROM JAPAN.

AMERICA HAS ALWAYS HAD ITS SHARE OF DIVISIONS RACIAL DIVISIONS ARE THE BEST KNOWN. WHAT SAVED AMERICA WAS AMAZING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

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HOME OF MASS PRODUCTION America in 1900 was the world’s workshop, much like China is today. Migration, motor cars, mass production and mass consumerism transformed the American economy between 1900 and 1930. Electricity brought light to homes, safety to streets and made possible the night-shift in factories. The electric elevator permitted skyscrapers, leading to urban density; Machine tools and assembly-line organization transformed the workplace. The internal combustion engine transformed transportation. Railways connected the east and west coasts of America opened up the farmland of the mid- West to trade through Chicago and the GREAT LAKES. The electric refrigerator changed food supply and eating habits. A public water supply protected every household; The retail store replaced homemade clothes and made shopping for clothes affordable America was a home of PHILANTHROPY – charitable donations to universities and hospialts that would make everything from X-rays and antibiotics to atomic bombs achievable. .

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA. In the decade before World War One, America was taking in a million migrants a year.

MIGRATION THE KEY TO SUCCESS the A massive United migration States is program connected means to that all ethnic, regions and of cultural the world ties. through family, year In the arrived early in 1900s the United one million States. migrants a America has always attracted the bright and ambitious. Of the 104 Americans who have been awarded Nobel Prizes in chemistry, been medicine, immigrants. and physics since 2000, 40 have American performing students students attract from the around highest- the world. There are 330 million Americans with 20. living standards higher than that living per capita standards are about in Australia.

DISILLUSIONMENT WITH WORLD WAR ONE

This is a tricky bit. The United States entered the war late, in 1917, and was on the winning side. BUT

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WORLD WAR ONE GREATLY UNSETTLED THE UNITED STATES- 116,000 mostly young American men died in the fighting, about two million were disabled, and more than half a million Americans died been from called the the Spanish American Flu Flu – which as it should started have in a military base in Kansas. The United States had tried to stay out of the war and only got involved in 1917, just as the Russians exited. The argument against the war was that the British had tricked the Americans into helping out the Allies basically to save Britain and France and with no benefit to the United States. After World War One, Americans voted for REPUBLICAN presidents who made it clear that it DID NOT WANT to be entangled in Europe’s problems. This mood is called ‘ISOLATIONISM’.

ISOLATIONISM A First’ huge – sound political familiar? movement arose called ‘America In the 1920s and 30s, the United States did not join the the continent Imperial League rise Japan of could of Fascist Nations on shield the Italy, grounds and Nazi itself did Germany little that from the to the counteract and American world’s even problems. THE GUY ON THE LEFT IS THE FAMOUS AIRMAN CHARLES LINDBERGH, THE FIRST MAN TO FLY SOLO NONSTOP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC IN THE 1920S. AMERICA Lindbergh FIRST was the COMMITTEE best-known and supporter was a constant of the thorn in the side of President Roosevelt who wanted America to do more to defend DEMOCRACY and fight the NAZIS. If Democratic you are President wondering Roosevelt why (FDR) the did American not do was more because to help that Britain would and have France led fight to his the defeat Nazis, in it the 1940 Presidential election. Most Americans, until Pearl Harbor, did not want to be involved in another European war.

PEARL HARBOR ATTACK IN 1941 ENDED ISOLATIONISM FIG H

WORLD WAR TWO DREW AMERICA DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO THE PACIFIC WORLD. AUSTRALIA BECAME AMERICA’S MAIN BASE AND SIGNED THE ANZUS AGREEMENT IN 1951. JAPAN WAS OCCUPIED AND HAS BEEN AN AMERICAN ALLY SINCE WORLD WAR TWO. THE UNITED STATES HAS REMAINED CLOSELY CONNECTED TO SOUTH KOREA, THE PHILIPPINES AND TO TAIWAN, EFFECTIVELY CONTAINING THE EASTERN COAST OF MAINLAND CHINA.

WORLD WAR TWO TURNED THE PACIFIC INTO AN AMERICAN LAKE THE UNITED STATES defeated the Japanese with a fair bit of help from the Chinese who bogged the Japanese down and from Australia which provided a huge air and sea base for fighting Japan. Soon 1941, after Australian the Japanese Prime attack Minister on Pearl John Harbour Curtin in December put the importance of the United States this way: ‘Without any that inhibitions Australia of any looks kind”, to America, he declared, free of “I any make pangs it quite as to clear our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom’. The, New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser put it this way: “New Zealand realises that the security and future development in cooperation of with the the Pacific United can States’. only be satisfactorily achieved Pearl Harbor attack had utterly discredited the pre-war isolationist movement. JAPAN, THE PHILIPPINES, SOUTH KOREA AND TAIWAN BECAME COMPLETELY DEPENDENT UPON AMERICAN MILTIARY POWER FOR THEIR DEFENSE. complete For decades, monopoly the of United power States in the Pacific maintained an almost The United States is still in the box seat because so many Australia, Pacific islands New and Zealand coastal and states Vietnam – Japan, – Philippines, prefer the Taiwan United States to China.

TRUMAN DOCTRINE Truman’s ‘Truman Doctrine’ speech of March 1947 was an important statement about what role America would play in the world. According to Truman, there could be no return to ISOLATIONISM because WORLD COMMUNISM represented a deadly threat to the American way

f life and had to be stopped. ‘At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too

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often not a free ne…One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political ppression….The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms’.

After the speech, Truman’s approval rating rose from 49% to 60%.

MARSHALL PLAN WAS A BIG DEAL

But it would take more than military force to save Europe, which was economically ruined by the war. What Europe needed was American money! In June 1947 Truman’s new Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced that the United States was willing to assist European nations in need if they made formal requests for assistance. Marshall warned that the collapse of Europe’s postwar economy would lead to another economic and political crisis and a third world war. According to Marshall, Europe would be able to rebuild and become stable and prosperous with American help. It all sounded so generous and altruistic! Britain and France got the most. Marshall Plan aid went to Turkey in the east, Portugal in the west, Sweden in. the north and Greece in the south! 13 billion US dollars at the time was a small fortune. And it was money well spent. No country that took Marshall Plan aid ever turned Communist… The Europeans built economies that were linked to an American supply chain, ensuring that American firms did well

ut of the new arrangement.

AMERICA WAS INVOLVED ON MULTIPLE FRONTS DURING THE COLD WAR established North Atlantic in Washington Treaty Organisation on 4 April 1949. (NATO) was was Up President until opposition the Truman American to had him to election play spending it of cool November more in case money there 1948 defending Europe. In 1948, Britain formed the Brussels Pact with four

ther countries and urged the Americans to join. wish In April and 1949, set up Truman a military gave alliance the United known Kingdom as NATO. its States. It had twelve Canada founding and ten members countries – in the Western United Europe. It was the most successful military alliance in all

f history. To this day, no NATO member has ever left. ARTICLE on COLLECTIVE 5 of NATO’s DEFENCE founding – an principles attack is on based one member is an an attack on them all. The Soviet Union never attacked a NATO member. called after Ironically, the into 9/11 the play attacks only was time in in support 2001. that ARTICLE of the United 5 has States been

NATO (THE ORANGE BITS) IS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY ALLIANCE SINCE WORLD WAR TWO – NO ALLY OF THE UNITED STATES HAS EVER DEFECTED.

TEAM AMERICA OR AMERICAN EMPIRE?

It is a bit of both – TEAM and EMPIRE are appropriate UNITED STATES. terms to use in relation to the alliance. countries begged Historians the like have United Britain, noted States France that to and join West West in a European Germany military The historian Geir Lundestad has described the distinct new American from Nazi empire invasion as ‘empire or Soviet by invitation’ occupation as in Eastern Europe. the On the Americans other hand, had ‘bought’ we aid need and plenty to anti-Communist remember of good that will through

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Propaganda. Marshall Plan American In money other as allies. words, well as there love of was democracy love of motivating American This was the strength of of countries Team America that were – a willing opposed partnership to Stalin and Communism. There and States Italy was in Parties. which Western plenty had of Europe, massive opposition especially Communist to the in and/or France United Socialist strong But no enough Communist to win Party an election. in the West was ever

By 1947, the Cold War was under way and Europe was divided into rival blocs, Team America and Team Stalin. Orthodox historians blame Stalin and Revisionist historian blame Truman. There is a case to be made that both

sides motives were defensive rather than aggressive. But there was simply no common ground, no bond of trust once Roosevelt departed the stage. After the Berlin Airlift ended in stalemate, Europe was frozen into Western and Communist spheres of influence for forty years.

POPULAR CULTURE DURING THE COLD WAR HELPED THE IDEA THAT AMERICA STOOD FOR FREEDOM. AMERICA IS STILL WINNING THAT ‘SOFT POWER’ WAR. YOUNG ONES AROUND THE WORLD JUST LOVE AMERICAN CULTURE.

WEST AS THE HOME OF FREEDOM – THE BATTLE OF IDEAS

There were some IMAGE problems for America along the way. The Vietnam War was not just a military disaster for the United States and a human tragedy all round, but also a propaganda disaster for the West. One of the worst of the American atrocities in Vietnam occurred in 1969 at My Lai when Lieutenant William Calley ordered his company to massacre 500 Vietnamese villagers (almost all non-combatant elderly and children). While many in America saw Calley as just another messed-up victim of the war, My Lai severely harmed the American brand across the world. It was widely assumed that My Lai was a typical atrocity/war crime and not just a one- off tragedy.

The distressing image of nine-year-old PHAN THI KIM PHUC on fire and fleeing a napalm attack - the front page of the New York Times in 1972 - was another damaging moment for the American brand. You will be pleased to know that she survived and is still alive and still campaigning against this type of weapon.

GORBACHEV HISTORY SOMETIMES SEEMS INEVITABLE WHEN IN FACT INDIVIDUALS MATTER A GREAT DEAL. There were fundamental flaws in Soviet economy but nothing too fatal. Then in 1985, the new, youthful General Secretary Gorbachev of took the over Communist the Soviet Party state Mikhail GORBACHEV’S REFORMS – GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA destabilised the Soviet Union, which began to unravel. Gorbachev was the first democratically- Alexander inclined person Kerensky to took lead over Russia from since the tsar back in 1917 – Kerensky and Gorbachev were equally unsuccessful.

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Team Western America Europe, Canada, – United Australia Kingdom, and than itself Pope Team John bigger, Soviet. Paul richer the Second and more had popular proven

GORBACHEV DECIDED TO ALLOW THE COUNTRIES OF EASTERN EUROPE TO JOIN TEAM AMERICA!

POLAND BROKE FROM THE SOVIET UNION IN AUGUST 1989 HUNGARY BROKE FROM THE SOVIET UNION IN OCTOBER 1989 EAST GERMANY BROKE FROM THE SOVIET UNION IN NOVEMBER 1989 WHEN THE BERLIN WALL CAME DOWN CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND ROMANIA BROKE AWAY FROM THE SOVIET UNION IN DECEMBER 1989 BULGARIA BROKE AWAY FROM THE SOVIET UNION IN 1990. Bottom line here is that Communism was not without popular Soviet enough support. in Eastern Europe to hang on But Gorbachev was reassured by Western leaders that the former Russian allies in Eastern Europe would not be allowed to join NATO.

DRUM

ROLLS,

PAY

ATTENTION

BECAUSE

THIS

GETS

COMPICATED.

AT THIS POINT, YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT THE SOVIET UNION WAS MADE UP OF FIFTEEN ‘REPUBLICS’ hence the name the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). By far the largest was the Russian federation, which stretched from Moscow to the Far East. Look at the bit in yellow. There were three Baltic republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Apart from Russia, there were two large Slavic republics – Ukraine and Belarus. In the south were Georgia and Azerbaizhan plus Armenia. In central Asia, there were five ‘STANS’ – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, and Turkmenistan. THEY ARE ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES NOW.

EXPANSION OF NATO from the 1990s ANGERED RUSSIA

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• REALISTS like Mearsheimer, Kissinger and Kennan argued WITH SOME JUSTIFICATION THAT RUSSIA WOULD NEED TO

BE TREATED CAREFULLY AND WITH RESPECT.

George Kennan, the father of CONTAINMENT during the Cold War recently warned left against the Warsaw enlarging Pact: NATO “the to the most countries fateful that error had of American policy in the entire post Cold War era”. According Cold War” to to Kennan, which “the it would Russians mark will ‘the gradually beginning react of a quite new adversely’. The problem for the Americans is that Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic States desperately WANTED to join NATO. NATO is very popular; the Americans prioritized the security feelings concerns of of Russia. Poles, Romanians and Estonians over the hurt The East Europeans who joined NATO are now happier than ever that they did so. The Ukrainian War seems to be evidence that the only way to safeguard member of yourself NATO.

from Russian attack is to become a Putin’s invasion of Ukraine can be read as reinforcing safety Kennan’s from warning a Russian OR as invasion! evidence that only NATO can provide

WHAT WAS TO BE AMERICA’S ROLE AFTER THE COLD WAR?

TWO TERRIBLE EVENTS IMPACTED UPON ELITE PERCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD IN THE 1990S. In April 1994, there was a terrible genocide in Rwanda, again a mostly ethnic massacre. estimated crash More 1994, caused than the deaths 150,000 one by million a of rocket to the 250,000 people Presidents attack, are women ignited estimated of Burundi several were to also and have weeks Rwanda raped. perished of intense On in a and 6 plane April and an systematic massacres. AT THE SAME TIME, THERE WAS A TERRIBLE ETHNIC-BASED WAR in Former Yugoslavia all through the 1990s. 140,000 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES IN EUROPE’S WORST WAR BETWEEN WORLD WAR TWO AND THE RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR. The most notorious moment was the GENOCIDAL killing been of taken 7,000 as to prisoners 8,000 Bosnian by Serbian Muslim paramilitary. men and boys who had war In many in Ukraine ways – the disputed wars of borders former after Yugoslavia the collapse resemble of a multi-ethnic the current state. created US President United Bill Nations Clinton doctrine and British of RESPONSIBILITY PM Tony Blair TO PROTECT cited a newly (R2P) as even their GENOCIDE justification, of Albanians. accusing Belgrade of ETHNIC CLEANSING and It all sounded good on paper – American military power would be used to prevent GENOCIDE. But in practice, much more difficult.

RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

In practice, however, military interventions to help the weak and vulnerable did not please everybody.

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In May 1999, the Americans bombed the Serbian capital Belgrade to prevent what was feared would be a Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo. During the bombing, NATO officials speculated that over 100,000 Albanians had been killed

the number of Albanian deaths is now calculated at 10,000 – not quite an Iraq WMD miscalculation but this did not go down well in Serbia or its backer, Russia.

THE AMERICANS DID ACHIEVE REGIME CHANGE IN SERBIA The Serbian dictator Milosevic was eventually ousted in what would become known as a COLOUR REVOLUTION in October 2000. Kosovo now is effectively independent but its conflict with Serbia continues. The United States officially recognized the Republic of Kosovo as a country, which declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, the next day. Serbia is just about the only country in Europe that supports the Russians in the conflict with Ukraine. Here is a post on the Russia Today site: ‘AS A SERB, I KNOW THEM! THE WEST. THEIR SOCIAL- DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND GREENS. THEY ARE VERY VERY VERY EVIL! THEY ARE HUMEN TRASH WHICH NEED TO BE TOTALY DEFEETED !! NO PEACE WITH THEM IS POSIBLE!! RUSSIANS AND CHINESE PEOPLE JUST NEED TO TAKE A LOOK WHAT THE WEST DID TO YUGOSLAVIA. THE SAME SCENARIO WEST HAS FOR THEM AND ALL INDEPENDENT NATIONS’.

THE 9/11 TERRORIST ATTACKS SUCCEEDED IN TWO WAYS. ONE WAY WAS THE DESTRUCTION OF SYMBOLS OF AMERICAN WEALTH AND POWER ON AMERICAN SOIL, A BLOW THE LIKE OF WHICH AMERICA HARDLY EVER HAS EXPERIENCED. THE SECOND SUCCESS WAS IN PROVOKING THE AMERICANS TO INVADE AFGHANISTAN, WHICH PROVED COSTLY AND FAILED TO PRODUCED A STABLE PRO-AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

IRAQ WAR OF 2003 DID NOT HELP THE REPUTATION OF THE UNITED STATES

On 20 March 2003, a United States-led international ‘coalition of the willing’ - which included Britain, Australia and Spain - launched an invasion of Iraq. The stated aims were to rid Iraq of weapons of mass free destruction, the Iraqi end people Saddam from Hussein's his repressive support regime. for terrorism and But when the Americans invaded, they could find no evidence of Iraq’s WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were mass protests around the world pointing out that the United States had no mandate from the United Nations to invade IRAQ. By 9 April, US troops were in Baghdad - effectively ending Saddam Hussein's regime. On 1 May, US President George W Bush made a speech on an aircraft battle of carrier Iraq is in one which victory he declared in a war the on war terror over, that saying: began 'The on September 11, 2001’. Above President Bush was a huge sign proclaiming MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Greek In retrospect, word the sign was for an example ARROGANT of HUBRIS, the PRIDE. fancy

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BRAND DAMAGE FOR THE UNITED STATES

Looting in Baghdad and other major cities had destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and there was high unemployment previous regime's – army. made worse by the disbandment of the Across Iraq, the fighting continued as a violent insurgency developed. Coalition forces and Iraqis working with them were targeted. IT HAS TO BE SAID THAT MANY AND ALMOST CERTAINLY MOST IRAQIS WANTED SADDAM HUSSEIN TO BE OVERTHROWN. At the same time, most Iraqis had no wish to become subjects of an American occupation. looted, Large quantities further fuelling of arms the insurgency. and ammunition had also been killed No one and knows wounded with certainty in Iraq since how many the 2003 people United have States been invasion. Around four thousand American soldiers would die in Iraq, mostly in suicide attacks and roadside bombings. violence AS many caused as 200,000 by the Iraqis U.S., its died allies, from the direct Iraqi war military related and police, and opposition forces from the time of the invasion up to the present. The upside is that Iraq today has regular elections, although there are still many, many governance problems. WAS IT WORTH IT? THERE IS A GOOD CASE FOR SAYING THAT IRAQ DAMAGED AMERICA’S REPUTATION MORE THAN VIETNAM.

AMERICA’S MAGNITSKY ACT ANGERED RUSSIA RUSSIA AND CHINA COMPLAIN THAT AMERICA IS THE BIGGEST HYPOCRITE IN THE WORLD AND ALWAYS INTERFERES IN THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF OTHER COUNTRIES. According to Russia and China, the United States claims to respect HUMAN RIGHTS but has no respect for the rights of China or Russia. For Russia, the classic case of American interference is MAGNITSKY ACT. Sergei MAGNITSKY was a lawyer in Russia who blew the whistle on corrupt practices. Magnitsky ended up dead in Moscow mysterious circumstances. In 2012, the American Congress BLACKLISTED Russian officials in connection with the suspicious death of Magnitsky. MAGNITSKY-TYPE LEGISLATION HAS BEEN ADOPTED BY COUNTRIES ALL AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING AUSTRALIA. THE AIM OF ‘MAGNITISKY’ LEGISLATION IS TO SANCTION INDIVIDUALS (AS DISTINCT FROM THE RUSSIAN STATE) WHO DO BAD THINGS LIKE THE MURDER OF MAGNITSKY. In response, Moscow prevented US-funded non-governmental organisations from working in Russia. Moscow also banned Americans from adopting Russian children. EVEN BEFORE THE WAR WITH UKRAINE, RUSSIA FELT THE WEST’S COLD SHOULDER. According to Russia, the United States should not be sticking its nose into the affairs of other GREAT POWERS.

The chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 was not a good look for the United States or President Joe Biden. The Americans spent a fortune in Afghanistan. They did some good things – women went to school and university for example. However, it all collapsed in a matter of months and the TALIBAN were back in power. The Americans had built shallow roots in the country with support mainly from a Westernised elite in the cities. 13 American troops died in the last days in Afghanistan amid chaotic scenes at Kabul airport. Not quite as bad as Vietnam, but not a whole lot better. The image of American weakness may have encouraged President Putin to think that there

would be a weak American response to an invasion of Ukraine.

IS AMERICAN DECLINE INEVITABLE?

IT IS TOO EARLY TO TELL. China

and Russia have rushed forward, claiming that their time has come.

In February 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint declaration of principles for a NEW ERA when the United States does not lead the world.

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Russia and China claim to represent the new GLOBAL MAJORITY. On the other hand, we in the West still seem to live in the American era: a period dominated by AMERICAN power, wealth, institutions, ideas, alliances, and partnerships.

IS AMERICA AN EMPIRE? AND AN EMPIRE OF THE EAST?

MOST AMERICANS DO NOT SEE THINGS THAT WAY, BUT … Americans have long mostly viewed themselves as the ANTI- and EMPIRE, equality. that is, a democratic republic committed to freedom Americans acting as the pride anti-empire themselves that on fought having Hitler’s served Racial the Reich world the by Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere and the EVIL EMPIRE that was the Soviet Union. You will recall that George Lucas in STAR WARS framed the Galactic basic principle Empire was as the DEMOCRACY evil enemy – of Darth a good Vader REPUBLIC fought for whose the EMPIRE while Luke, Hans and Leia fought for the REPUBLIC. odd Of course given to that our the modern United eyes, States it all was looks clearly hypocritical founded and on slaves conquest to of work the the native plantations Americans – and clearly then that the is kidnapping the modus of

perandi of an EMPIRE! The resulted war in of the 1846 United against States Mexico expanded and American 1898 against territory Spain to Texas, California, Hawaii and the Philippines. After World War Two, South Korea and Japan joined TEAM AMERICA – clearly the United States GEOGRAPHICALLY is an EMPIRE OF THE EAST and not just the WEST! Since 1945, American troops have served abroad 211 times in 67 countries – the Americans maintain around 800 military bases across the globe. The well-known interventions in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan are the tip of the iceberg.

MOST AMERICANS THINK THAT THE YEARNING FOR FREEDOM FROM REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT IS BASIC HUMAN NATURE

• Have a read of President Truman’s famous prediction in American 1953 about optimism how the about Cold War the DEMOCRATIC would end sums future up of humanity.

• ‘Last week, in my take State the of time the Union to read Message it--I explained to the Congress--and how I think we I will united, hope finally you more will win attractive all through…As to men the free on both world sides grows of the stronger, Iron Curtain--and more

as have the to Soviet come hopes a time for of easy change expansion in the Soviet are blocked--then world. there will • or come Nobody by a about, change can say whether inside for sure the by when Kremlin. revolution, that is going or trouble to be, in or the exactly satellite how states, it will • will--or Whether whether the Communist the change that rulers a comes change shift about their will occur. in policies some of other their way-I own have free

not a doubt in the world

• that wonderful patience I have science a and deep golden has courage, and forged age--an abiding earth.’ we for shall age us faith to when some do in the we day away can destiny move with use on poverty of the into free peaceful a and men. new human era--a tools With misery everywhere on

• Truman was almost certainly right that the attractiveness of the ‘free world’ was a decisive factor in causing the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Is Russians the Western and young ‘way of Chinese? life’ still a big attraction for young We will find out the answer to that question in your lifetimes.

RUSSIA’S LEADERSHIP VIEWS THE WEST AS A WHINGING ENTITLED WOKE PRINCESS THAT HAS HAD ITS DAY AND WILL, LIKE NARCISSUS, DROWN IN THE POOL AFTER FALLING IN LOVE WITH ITS OWN REFLECTION. IF YOU THINK I EXAGGERATE, YOU NEED TO READ RUSSIA TODAY. IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF NARCISSUS, TIS A GREEK MYTH.

IS THIS A CHANCE FOR AMERICAN REDEMPTION?

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China and Russia have rushed forward, claiming that their time has come. Vladimir when In February the Putin United 2022, issued States Chinese a does joint President not declaration lead Xi the Jinping of world. principles and Russian for a NEW President ERA Russia and China claim to represent the new GLOBAL MAJORITY. On the other hand, we in the West still seem to live in the American era: ideas, a alliances, period dominated and partnerships. by AMERICAN power, wealth, institutions, UKRAINE IS IN MANY WAYS THE PERFECT WAR FOR THE UNITED STATES – AN OPPORTUNITY TO WEAKEN RUSSIA WITHOUT LOSING AMERICAN TROOPS. winner In the West, in terms supporting of popular ‘brave’ opinion. Ukraine against ‘oppressive’ Russia is a nearly In 2022, $50 the billion Biden in administration assistance to Ukraine, and the U.S. Congress have directed It included humanitarian, financial, and military support. This help refugees, is but a new money law Ukrainian enforcement, going tof version Ukrainian and of independent the people Marshall and radio Plan institutions, broadcasters, not just military including The billion European EUROS worth Union recently of aid to promised Ukraine. that in 2023 it will send 18 Arguably North Korea repressive make America policies look on good the part in the of eyes China, of two Russia key Iran Western and demographics – young and female voters. IS THE UKRAINE WAR A SECOND CHANCE FOR AMERICA, A SHOT AT REDEMPTION? Will America blow it? We will see.