….What you wish for. Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria takes a look at this year's Davos conference and calls it a preview of the post US world. Even though he completely memory holes John Kerry's mullah-approved® anti-American statements, the gist of the article is that without a global leader like the US, there may well be serious trouble on the horizon.
Feb. 5, 2007 issue – Two things were missing from this year's world Economic Forum at Davos: snow (which arrived eventually) and America-bashing (which did not). There were, of course, lots of American businessmen, activists and intellectuals filling the panels and halls of the conference. There were even a few senior American officials—though no star speaker. But, for the first time in my memory, America was somewhat peripheral. There were few demands, pleas, complaints or tantrums directed at the United States. In this small but significant global cocoon, people—for the moment at least—seemed to be moving beyond America…….
…..We are certainly in a trough for America—with Bush in his last years, with the United States mired in Iraq, with hostility toward Washington still high almost everywhere. But if so, we might also be getting a glimpse of what a world without America would look like. It will be free of American domination, but perhaps also free of leadership—a world in which problems fester and the buck is endlessly passed, until problems explode…….
…….German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a new round of trade talks and asked that everyone be "flexible." In fact, the United States has exhibited considerable flexibility, relaxing its position on many contentious issues, including agricultural subsidies. On the other hand, France, that eloquent critic of U.S. unilateralism, has refused to budge on its lavish subsidies for farmers. As a result, the European Union is fractured and paralyzed. For their part Brazil, China and India speak of flexibility in the abstract but have made no new proposals. The ball for every problem is in everybody's court, which means that it is in nobody's court.
Zakaria correctly points out that, despite all the wishful thinking out there among America bashers (like John Kerry), the global economy is not self-managing. The US has done more to keep the system functioning than we are credited with. The US has been the world's security blanket. A post-US world will not be the utopia the bashers dream of. Rather it will likely be exactly the opposite. Zakaria ends the article with this warning:
But for those who have been fondly waiting for the waning of American dominance—be careful what you wish for.
I think that's about right.
