Containment and other things

The other day I read an article by Paul Krugman of The New York Times entitled “The Ugly American Bank”. Krugman was writing about the World Bank which, despite its name, is really an American bank. It is not seen in a positive light by the rest of the world because it tends more to promote America’s interests rather than address the plight of the world’s poorer nations as it was originally intended. To make things worse, Krugman wrote, President Bush has nominated one of the most divisive, mean-spirited people in his administration to head it, a neo-conservative, Paul Wolfowitz.

Krugman seemed baffled by Bush’s choice to head the World Bank because a month earlier, when Bush met with European leaders, it seemed that he wanted to cooperate with them and mend fences. However, this nomination seems to follow the old pattern. Bush is still up to his old tricks, acting as a unilateralist , being narrow-minded and thinking of America first. Krugman thought that if Bush wanted to be more conciliatory, as he showed on his European trip, he could have at least consulted with his allies about his choice.

As I read Krugman’s article I recalled another one he wrote shortly after 9/11. In it he wrote that one of the silliest idea he ever heard was one made by a British professor who said that 9/11 would mark the end of globalization. I agree, it is a silly idea.

I was thinking of offering Krugman one of my ideas. He might think it equally silly. But I don’t. My idea is this, that Bush is the right man for the times. It is Bush’s choice of Wolfowitz and other poorly suited people to run things that provoked me to think this. This is how my idea goes: because of his poor choices, single-mindedness and weak stewardship, Bush is facilitating the decline of America. But that’s ok because historically decline comes to all great empires. Now, it is the American empire’s turn to decline. Bush is the right man for the times because he is helping hasten America’s inevitable decline from within. By presiding over a second rate administration he is helping the decline along. His defunctive ideology and incompetence are also helping the decline along.

However, the world is a different place from what it was in the past. America's decline is not happening in the same way when past empires virtually disappeared. This time it’s different. America will not collapse like the Soviet Union or the Roman Empire did. Its decline is more transitional and stabilizing, leaving an equalizing, leveling effect throughout the world. Essentially, America is sharing its empire with the rest of the world. The world is adopting America’s system as their own rather than overturning it and creating a new one. As a consequence a ‘world empire’ is being created. America has facilitated this development by encouraging other nations to be more like it politically and economically. The rest of the world has heeded America’s advise and embraced its ways. The Germans did as did the Japanese and now the Chinese and Indians are.

America has done a good job in teaching the rest of world to follow its example. The world has copied America’s management skills, production techniques and general way of life. At times, though, I can hear America saying, "we didn't mean for you to do so well as to better us and overtake us". What is going on here is something akin to a father relinquishing the reigns to his sons. America is now being eclipsed by its own ingenuity.

As I am thinking about all this I hear that a ‘giant’ in foreign affairs has just died, George Kennan. Essentially he created America’s post W.W.II foreign policy. In the aftermath of the war America was flummoxed about how to deal with its chief adversary, the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was expanding its influence and wreaking havoc with America’s approach to global affairs. Kennan, a minor diplomat in the State Department, suggested that instead of opposing Communism with military might it should contain it through ideology, diplomacy and covert action -- by means other than war. Thus was born the doctrine of containment. It was so successful in containing the Soviet Union and Communism that it eventually helped bring about their collapse without a shot being fired.

I brought up the idea of containment because it is another example of America’s innovations being used against it. America’s anti-international stance is now being contained and modified by the international community America educated. So if Wolfowitz becomes head of the World Bank his ‘America first’ mentality will likely be tempered and contained by this doctrine that America invented, this time constraining America. Already America has had its excessive foreign policies, like the ‘Bush Doctrine’, clipped and contained by its allies. I think Krugman should take some comfort in this when thinking about Wolfowitz's appointment.