December 29, 2024, will go down as a bleak date in the pages of American history. The death of former President James Earl Carter Jr represented something much more profound than the passing of a widely loved head of state. The death knells that rang out signalled to the rest of the world that America’s international identity as we knew it was dead and gone. Indeed, just over three weeks later newly inaugurated President Trump spoke in a crowded Capitol rotunda to tell the world that he was implementing fresh tariffs and restrictions on the U.S.’s trading partners, finishing off by declaring “The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before”. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be a once-off policy to balance the fiscal books. Indeed, it would appear that America is exiting left off the world stage altogether in-pursuit of its own domestic objectives, at the detriment of practically everybody else. In other words, the American dream is becoming an international nightmare.
Post-Second World War, American foreign policy was marked by an active engagement in international affairs. Since the utterance of the Monroe Doctrine at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the U.S. had been mainly dormant in global issues and took an isolationist stance to conundrums on the European continent and elsewhere. It was not until after 1945 the nation began to take a more active interest, particularly due to the rising influence of communism. Indeed, the majority of decisions it took with regard to foreign policy for the following forty years was done to combat its hegemonic foe, the Soviet Union. The Marshall Plan, for example, which provided much needed aid to war-torn Europe in the postwar period was carried out with the ulterior aim of subverting Soviet influence in Europe. Furthermore, the U.S. collaborated with European states to form the North Atlantic Treaty in-order to provide military protection to the West from those on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Of course, it also engaged in countless conflicts and coups across South America, Asia, and Africa in pursuit of its fanatical containment policy but it is important to highlight the global power’s role in international collaborative efforts.
It is particularly important to highlight the humanitarian aspects of the U.S.’s foreign policy during this time, most notably by former President Carter himself. He was a crucial player, for example, in negotiations to deliver fair and free elections to Zimbabwe whilst it was under white-minority rule. Furthermore, he lent U.S. support to the U.N. Security Council’s Resolution 418 which infamously imposed an arms embargo on apartheid South Africa. The legacy of such policies continued with the administrations that followed. President Ronald Reagan provided over $1 billion in aid to Africa to tackle famine in Sub-Saharan Africa. President Bill Clinton played a key role in ending the Bosnian genocide and headed the Dayton Peace Agreement which brought about an end to the war. His administration also contributed significantly to the Good Friday Agreement. This is not to mention the numerous international organisations and forums which the U.S. involves itself in on issues of the environment, health, and other existential issues up to President Barack Obama adopting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in 2015.
Unfortunately, such initiative by the U.S. nowadays appears to be a relic of the past. The current administration appears to view multilateralism as a burden that does not seem to benefit the American nation’s own interests. President Trump’s approach to foreign conflicts is not so much one which aims to deliver fair and just peace agreements but rather is aimed at ending them whatever the cost. Not the U.S., thus not the U.S.’s problem. Recent comments about converting Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” as well as excluding Ukraine from peace talks regarding the very war it is fighting suggests that the administration has abandoned any willingness to rectify sovereign wrongs. His attitude to international institutions has expressed a similar tone, pulling out of the World Health Organisation, the Paris Climate Agreement, and the UN Human Rights Council two weeks into his presidency. And indeed, he has pledged tariffs and trade wars with any economic partner he argues has treated the U.S. unfairly in their agreements. America is taking its bow, but not before setting alight the whole stage first.
What the current administration does not realise, however, is that it is not only shooting themselves in the foot but also kneecapping itself in the process. Multipolarity is a term that is becoming frequently used in the media to describe the present state of international affairs. Indeed, we are no longer living in the world that was hailed in by David Hasselhoff at the fall of the Berlin Wall, symbolising the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union and leaving the U.S. as the world’s sole superpower. Other nations are quietly but also assertively building up their own influence in all paradigms, awaiting their chance in the spotlight. The U.S. does not realise it is not only leaving behind a few payments here and a few duties there but a sizeable power vacuum that is waiting to be filled by the next big hegemon. And whilst it may take the form of an ally like the EU (unlikely though, considering current Eurosceptic apprehension), it may also take a more rival-shaped figure who does not take so keenly to Western democratic values like rights or rule of law. Indeed, the U.S. may be in the process of creating its own Frankenstein’s Monster.
In his 1979 State of the Union address, President Jimmy Carter uttered with his famous Southern drawl “We have no desire to be the world’s policeman. But America does want to be the world’s peacemaker”. Such words appear to be becoming more of a whisper as the years pass on, but it is a statement which should be etched in the President’s desk at the Oval Office. The United States is by no means a perfect power, as any amount of developing or communist nations will tell you. However, there is no denying the role it has played in mediating peace and leading the world in initiatives against the existential. As the most powerful nation in the world, it has a duty to place itself at the forefront of protecting humanity’s existence. It is in their very interest to do so, to cement their place and guard itself against those that lie in the shadows. But for now goliath sleeps, and all we can do is await its re-awakening.
