Global Cooperation Must Become the New Paradigm

The sabers are rattling once again in the Middle East, this time between the United States and Iran. Heightened sanctions have created heightened tensions with Western Europe joining in with the U.S. in tightening the screws. Iran has responded with the threat of blocking the Straits of Hormuz—definitely a path to war.

The world is now interactive, but it is also interdependent. Today, for the first time in human history, we live in a world in which the challenges of human survival have begun to overshadow the more traditional conflicts between countries. The frightening reality is that major powers have yet to collaboratively tackle the new and increasingly dangerous challenges to the safety and well being of mankind, such as environmental, socio-economic, nutritional, demographic or climatic.

Faced with global conflict, mankind is suddenly dealing with a terribly unstable geopolitical environment. Consequently, under current conditions, any attempt to achieve even a tenuous level of global cooperation is more likely to fail than to succeed. Indeed, the shifting distribution of global power and the new phenomenon of massive political awakening (such as with last year’s so-called Arab spring), will respectively add to the volatility of modern day international relations. As China’s impact on the world scene grows and as other emerging powers such as Russia, India or Brazil compete with each other for dwindling resources, border security and economic advantage, the possibility for mistakes and subsequent conflict increases.

What can the United States do in the face of all this? It is imperative, that beginning tomorrow, we seek to design a broader and more inclusive geopolitical foundation for positive and constructive cooperation in the international arena while at the very same time accommodating the rising aspirations of an increasingly restless global population—particularly in the under-developed parts of the world.

There is no question that America’s role in the world today as well as in the world that is to come will continue to be essential. In fact, the current and ongoing changes to the distribution of global influence and power as well as the ever worsening global strife, make it all the more imperative that America not retreat into a pre-World War I isolationist state of existence. This kind of America can only cause the geopolitical prospects of a balanced evolving world—in which the center of gravity is shifting from West to East—to become increasingly dangerous. The world will always need an America that is economically viable, responsibly powerful, strategically purposeful, and internationally respected.

I can remember as a child when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. Looking back on that time through the eyes of an adult, I can see how Americans became simultaneously occupied with peaceful competition as well as strategic warfare. When my generation failed to achieve a true victory in Vietnam, the Communist world jubilantly predicted the downfall of America—but America proved to be more resilient and it was the Soviet system that eventually collapsed.

By 1991, following the implosion of both the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union itself, the United States was the last powerful country standing and we became, in essence, the only global superpower. The victory over communism was proclaimed by President Reagan as not only decisive but final. Because this democratic victory had been won by the West, many believed that we would become the defining standard for the world. It was not however, a done deal.

The culture of the so-called “Me generation” and self-gratification that began during the Clinton administration and continued under President George W. Bush led to the bursting first of a housing bubble rapidly followed by an all out financial crash.

The costly unilateralism of the Bush presidency in the aftermath of 9-1-1 resulted in a decade of war in the Middle East that has yet to be concluded, coupled with a derailment of American influence throughout the international community.

The financial catastrophe of 2008, which greeted President Obama as he entered office, nearly caused a calamitous economic depression shocking all of America into a sudden acknowledgement of our vulnerability to un-regulated greed.

Ironically, China, other Asian States and even to some extent Russia, had found a way to create a capacity for economic growth and technological innovation without totally abandoning their socialist roots. This resulted in a new level of anxiety for Americans regarding our future as the leading world power to say nothing of our own immediate and individual economic survival.

What is truly frightening and what American leaders seem to be almost unaware of, are the alarming similarities between the Soviet Union in the years immediately leading up to its fall and our own country today. The Soviet Union, with an increasingly gridlocked government system incapable of reaching consensus, in effect destroyed itself by committing an unrealistic proportion of their GNP to a military rivalry with the United States that lasted for decades. If that was not enough, they also took on the additional expense of waging a ten-year war in Afghanistan that only got them thousands of dead Russian soldiers, a depleted national treasury and millions of Afghanis who came to hate the Soviets. Ultimately, the Russians could not afford to continue their rivalry with us while simultaneously waging a war that could not be won. Subsequently, the Soviet Union continued to lose ground in their competition with us as their national economy stumbled and the quality of life for the average Russian deteriorated to the point where there were massive demonstrations in the streets.

Finally, in foreign affairs, the Soviet Union became increasingly self-isolated while watching the relationship with their once most trusted ally China slip into oblivion.

These parallels, even if somewhat overstated, nonetheless make the case that America must renew herself and pursue a comprehensive and sustainable geopolitical vision that is responsive to the challenges of a changing planet. Only a dynamic and economically strong United States, together with a Europe that is also dynamic and working with us and each other for a common economic and political good, can collaboratively create a more unified West, one capable of responding to the challenges of an increasingly assertive East.

America still has an important part to play on the world stage. This is why it is so very important to make the correct choice in November 2012.