America’s intriguing global retreat

While we were trapped in an electoral frenzy, in the United States, something extraordinary was cooking.

The US plans to terminate its long-running foreign policy mission in pursuit of global democracy and justice.

Yes. You got it right. The American Secretary of State, Mr Rex Tillerson, is reengineering the State Department’s raison d’être that will ultimately render obsolete the Abraham Lincoln’s view that it is the America’s duty to ensure that the “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Yet, previously, anchored on the creed of exceptionalism, the US took to the deserts, hills and valleys advancing the gospel of democracy and justice across the globe.

This crusade meant waging wars and toppling regimes. Recall Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya.

WILSON WOODROW

Even First World War President Wilson Woodrow aptly framed it as one “to make the world safe for democracy.”

And the US struggle during the Cold War was to “preserve the free world”.

The concept of the Free World enchanted most of the liberation movements that sought emancipation from the yokes of colonial masters, communism and despots.

And thanks to the US, the winds of democracy smashed the Berlin Wall and dismantled the Soviet Union.

But then, the end of this spree is nigh, so it appears. By purging the ideals of democracy and justice from its doctrine, the US will take the dishonourable route of powers such as China and Russia, to whom, democracy and its cohort of justice, liberties, freedoms, moral and ethical imperatives are nonsensical.

DRAMATIC RETREAT

Ultimately, this dramatic retreat from a long cherished norm will reconfigure US-global relations, with far-reaching consequences.

It will reduce funding to civil society, cut technical assistance, reshape domestic policies, and may spawn the rise of absolute rulers across the world for lack of a deterrence from a power.

Excesses that infringe on human rights and liberties are likely to rise.

Further, states that are on the borderline of democracy in Africa, Asia, and South America may regress, and those with authoritarian regimes like in the Mid-East can now sit pretty.

In this new regime, it is the masses that will suffer. This was the State Department’s mission before the review: “… to shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world…” (Italics mine).

Compare it with the proposed new mission: “Lead America’s foreign policy through global advocacy, action and assistance to shape a safer, more prosperous world.”

DEMOCRACY

The change of heart should not come as a surprise. President Donald Trump has exhibited deep loath for ideals of democracy.

He lambasts the independent Press branding it “fake news,” and is uncomfortable with free speech acts felonious to the US First Amendment.

He has not hidden his admiration for despots such as Vladimir Putin of Russia, and seems comfortable with the Saudi monarchy, its poor human rights record notwithstanding.

Under Trump, it seems, the much-exalted ‘Shining city on a Hill’ is faltering.

Yet democratic ideals of liberty, equality, human rights and justice are critical to the very dignified and prosperous life.

HEGEMONY

Sadly, human beings have exhibited both altruism and egotism with equal measure. The latter loves to rear its ugly head time and again.

It is the reason why a bigger brother in the comity of nations, a hegemony, acts as a guarantor of rights. 

The US was founded on the concept of 17th century Enlightenment philosophies. 

Thinkers such as Baron de Montesequieu’s, John Locke, Jean Jacque Rosseau and John Stuart Mills strongly believed that to rule, a leader requires consent of the masses that liberty is critical to mankind and separation of the estates is key for a balanced society.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

But the trouble with the US is the double standards. When fitting, where oil, strategic geopolitics and trade are involved, it relishes a tango with tyrants.

It is this selective approach that has also attracted rounds of critiques. 

Yet, that should not blind us from the many programmes that have brought dignity, and prosperity to millions of people across the world.

Though under Mr Trump the US seeks to be great again, such a dream is untenable in a world that is yoked under the pernicious and exploitative whims of autocrats where a just and democratic realm is but a fairy tale.

Mr Wamanji is a Public Relations expert [email protected] Twitter: manjis