|
||
|
|
|
Decline is a Choice: The New Liberalism and the End of American Ascendancy In his recent Wriston Lecture at the Manhattan Institute, Charles Krauthammer challenges those who assert the inevitability of America’s decline. He argues that for America, however, decline is a matter of choice, an outcome revealing a loss of “moral self-confidence and will.” After World War II, the United States abandoned its historical isolationism and became a global co-hegemon. Following the Cold War, Madeleine Albright’s “indispensable nation” had no peer and, writes Krauthammer, used its power in a benevolent way, becoming the first hegemon in modern history whose conduct did not “immediately catalyze the creation of a massive counter-hegemonic alliance.” Krauthammer sees nothing inevitable about the major threats to the U.S. economy and the dollar’s role as a global currency. By ending its thirty-year nuclear-power plant holiday and tapping its immense oil and natural gas reserves, the U.S. could end the oil imports that account for two-thirds of its trade imbalance. America’s second economic threat comes from fiscal deficits being perpetuated by those who regard a financial crisis as a terrible thing to waste. What Krauthammer calls the New Liberalism poses the principal threat to American ascendancy. Filled with criticism of America’s past international conduct, that philosophy calls upon the United States to “gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly” yield its international dominance and turn global governance over to a fictive “community of nations.” The New Liberalism, he believes, has also prompted the president to: question America’s commitment to democracy abroad, as in Iran and Honduras; moderate its campaign against terrorism; and weaken both its own missile defenses and those planned for Eastern Europe. When Athenians, facing decline, asked Demosthenes what they must do to recover, his response was “Don’t do what you are doing now.” Krauthammer gives Americans similar advice: Resist decline. Put your economic house in order. Feel no shame about your dominant role. The world needs your leadership. |
|||
 |
|
