{"id":209446,"date":"2022-04-18T12:01:10","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T11:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=209446"},"modified":"2022-04-16T05:18:19","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T04:18:19","slug":"americas-hypocrisy-over-ukraine-and-spheres-of-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/04\/americas-hypocrisy-over-ukraine-and-spheres-of-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Hypocrisy over Ukraine and \u2018Spheres of Influence\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

15 Apr 2022 – <\/em>The Russian invasion of Ukraine \u201cis in many ways bigger than Russia, it\u2019s bigger than Ukraine,\u201d State Department spokesman Ned Price recently declared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are principles that are at stake here \u2026 Each and every country has a sovereign right to determine its own foreign policy, has a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships and what orientation it wishes to direct its gaze.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated last year,<\/a> does not recognize \u201cspheres of influence,\u201d<\/em> adding that the concept \u201cshould have been retired after World War II.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Those are noble but empty words \u2014 because they obviously do not apply to the Western Hemisphere. Take Cuba, which continues to suffer under an embargo that has been enforced for 60 years. That, plus the pandemic and President Donald Trump\u2019s reversal<\/a> of Obama-era liberalization \u2014 a crackdown sustained by the Biden administration<\/a> \u2014 has bludgeoned the island\u2019s economy. Food and medicine are scarce<\/a>; many young and entrepreneurial Cubans are leaving the island in droves<\/a>. The pressure contributed in large measure to the protests that stunned the island last July.<\/p>\n

Yes, the one-party regime remains and still represses much dissent. But the embargo and related policies have failed<\/a> for six decades and 11 presidents. Cubans are still applauded for their humanitarian efforts, dispatching doctors<\/a> to help in disasters across the developing (and developed) world. The United States and Cuba cooperate in efforts to police drug trafficking and limit terrorism. Yet the embargo continues \u2014 punishing the Cuban people until they get rid of the government the United States does not approve of. So much for \u201cchoosing their own path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuba is not alone. The United States has imposed harsh sanctions on Venezuela and Nicaragua<\/a> for sustaining regimes Washington opposes. Even the recent sanctions on Russia, says Juan Sebastian Gonzalez, the senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, are designed such<\/p>\n

\u201cthat they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia \u2026 So Venezuela will start feeling the pressure; Nicaragua will start feeling the pressure; as will Cuba.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the same time, the national security establishment is raising alarms about growing Chinese involvement<\/a> in the Western Hemisphere. China is now Latin America\u2019s leading trade partner<\/a>, as well as a leading source of direct investment and financing. Interested in security access to commodity exports, China assisted the region after the 2008 financial crisis, with investments that generated jobs and helped decrease poverty in the region. During the pandemic, the Chinese rushed vaccines<\/a> (of questionable effectiveness, it should be noted) into the region and provided continued demand for products.<\/p>\n

All this raises fears about China\u2019s support for what are castigated as \u201cpopulist\u201d governments from Argentina to Venezuela. Already armchair strategists are scoping out how to respond to the threat posed by Chinese trade, investment and financing. Evan Ellis, a professor at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, penned a report<\/a> for the Center for Strategic and International Studies entitled \u201cPreparing for Deterioration of the Latin America and Caribbean Strategic Environment,\u201d<\/em> which suggested the United States doesn\u2019t have the resources to compete with China on investments and aid to the region.<\/p>\n

To make up the deficit, Ellis chillingly argues for an aggressive U.S. military buildup in the region, a propaganda offensive to discredit any governments friendly to China, \u201cpotentially promoting resistance movements\u201d against Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence, and, of course, sanctions for those who stray. The professor did not mention the \u201cprinciple\u201d of allowing nations to choose their own course.<\/p>\n

Another example of this view comes from Post contributing columnist Robert Kagan<\/a>, who argues in Foreign Affairs that the United States should embrace its role as a global hegemon. This is a duty, not a choice, he writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cA militarily, economically, and culturally powerful country exerts influence on other states by its mere presence, the way a larger body in space affects the behavior of smaller bodies through its gravitational pull.\u201d<\/em> The United States is entangled because \u201cwhat it offers is genuinely attractive to much of the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But in our own hemisphere, the \u201cgravitational pull\u201d comes not from the United States in decline, but from China on the rise, offering markets, money, investment \u2014 and a governing model: \u201ccapitalism with Chinese characteristics.<\/em>\u201d If the national security establishment has its way, the United States won\u2019t let our neighbors choose their own orientation. It will push propaganda, reinforce corrupt elites and threaten or impose sanctions for those who don\u2019t fall in line with a \u201cmodel\u201d that has failed repeatedly across the hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Hypocrisy is common in international relations. The Russians and Chinese, for example, constantly invoke international law, even as they trample it when they deem it necessary. The United States champions a \u201crules-based order,<\/em>\u201d in which we make the rules and hold ourselves exempt from them when desirable. The \u201cprinciple\u201d of respecting nations and their right to choose their own path is a good one. The countries of our own hemisphere wish we would practice it as well as preach it.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Katrina vanden Heuvel <\/em>is editorial director and publisher of <\/em>The Nation<\/a> and<\/em> served as editor of the magazine from 1995 to 2019. She is president of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord (ACURA) and has edited or co-edited several books, including<\/em> The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama (2011) and<\/em> Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (2009).<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is distributed by <\/em>Globetrotter<\/a> in partnership with <\/em>The Nation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Apr 2022 – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that he does not recognize \u201cspheres of influence,\u201d and the concept \u201cshould have been retired after World War II.\u201d Those are empty words because they obviously do not apply to the Western Hemisphere–or the USA. Take Cuba, for example, or Nicaragua, Venezuela\u2026 Hypocrisy is common in international relations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":188033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[867,2642,530,1035,1268,1126,1050,504,541,1308,278,923,961,70,557],"class_list":["post-209446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-anglo-america","tag-anti-imperialism","tag-cuba","tag-eastern-europe","tag-european-union","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-international-relations","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-nicaragua","tag-russia","tag-sanctions","tag-ukraine","tag-usa","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}