{"id":77782,"date":"2016-08-22T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=77782"},"modified":"2016-08-18T13:27:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T12:27:10","slug":"the-american-century-has-plunged-the-world-into-crisis-what-happens-now-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/08\/the-american-century-has-plunged-the-world-into-crisis-what-happens-now-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018American Century\u2019 Has Plunged the World into Crisis – What Happens Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. foreign policy is dangerous, undemocratic, deeply out of sync with real global challenges,<\/em> full of corruption, and has not done the world well. Continuous war is inevitable if we continue to follow these same policies. Can we change this for the better?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An anti-U.S. mural is seen on a wall of a government building in central Tehran October 12, 2011.
REUTERS\/Morteza Nikoubazl<\/p><\/div>\n

22 Jun 2015 – <\/em>There\u2019s something fundamentally wrong with U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Despite glimmers of hope \u2014 a tentative nuclear agreement with Iran, for one, and a long-overdue thaw with Cuba \u2014 we\u2019re locked into seemingly irresolvable conflicts in most regions of the world. They range from tensions with nuclear-armed powers like Russia and China to actual combat operations in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.<\/p>\n

Why? Has a state of perpetual warfare and conflict become inescapable? Or are we in a self-replicating cycle that reflects an inability \u2014 or unwillingness \u2014 to see the world as it actually is?<\/p>\n

The United States is undergoing a historic transition in our relationship to the rest of the world, but this is neither acknowledged nor reflected in U.S. foreign policy. We still act as if our enormous military power, imperial alliances, and self-perceived moral superiority empower us to set the terms of \u201cworld order.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this illusion goes back to the end of World War II, it was the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union that signaled the beginning of a self-proclaimed \u201cAmerican Century.\u201d The idea that the United States had \u201cwon\u201d the Cold War and now \u2014 as the world\u2019s lone superpower \u2014 had the right or responsibility to order the world\u2019s affairs led to a series of military adventures. It started with President Bill Clinton\u2019s intervention in the Yugoslav civil war, continued on with George W. Bush\u2019s disastrous invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and can still be seen in the Obama administration\u2019s own misadventures in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and beyond.<\/p>\n

In each case, Washington chose war as the answer to enormously complex issues, ignoring the profound consequences for both foreign and domestic policy. Yet the world is very different from the assumptions that drive this impulsive interventionism.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this disconnect that defines the current crisis.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging New Realities<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what is it about the world that requires a change in our outlook? A few observations come to mind.<\/p>\n