BY: Mohammad Ghaderi
PEJOURNAL – A brief look at the past shows that military solutions have not worked. The United States withdrew from Afghanistan and is scheduled to withdraw from Iraq and then from Syria. The United States’ efforts and legacy in the Middle East, despite its heavy costs, have failed to strengthen the foundations of democracy in the region.
The result of all this American expense and effort in the Middle East was, unfortunately, the emergence of a hostile discourse that made all countries in the region more hostile to each other; and during the turmoil in the region, some countries gained the power to destabilize or destroy weak countries.
The coming years are the most critical and one of the most crucial times in history for the United States and the rest of the world. The years that must be spent to find definitive solutions to the forthcoming crises that have caused serious damage to the daily lives of the people of the world. If the countries of the world do not work together to find common solutions to the crises in the Middle East and the Coronavirus, the current challenges will turn into crises that will even surrender the great powers of the world.
The partial US military intervention in the Middle East has left the countries of the region without cooperation in any field, and no government sees its interests in line with another government. All the countries of the Middle East are engaged in a game, each of which neutralizes the other’s influence so that there is no subject for dialogue for the purpose of forming an understanding. All the fledgling and authoritarian governments of the region in enmity with each other are only concerned with maintaining and strengthening their political and military power.
On the other side of the world, Sino-US rivalry and Russian military unrest have upset the balance of power. If the United States, China, Russia, and Europe fail to break free from the confusion in international relations that themselves are a major part of this disorder, it is possible that the current crises, led by the Corona virus, will overcome the economic, social and even military situation and take control of the world.
The United States should consider solutions other than the strategy of extraterrestrial warfare and economic competition with China, and encourage other countries to cooperate more with the United States instead of opposing it.
In the United States, the struggle between Democrats and Republicans must be put aside for at least a few years, and the White House and Congress, in partnership and revision of international policies based on political militarism, must turn to a new kind of international relationship with China.
Russia and incompatible regimes in the Middle East are effective. If the United States, in the consensus of Democrats and Republicans, fails to define its place in a world that has undergone fundamental changes over the years, not only will it not be able to survive as an important leader, but also Europe and even China, also put Russia against the United States. Political modernization between the two major parties in the United States must also take into account the health of the people and the future power of US parties.
The costs of enforcing a policy of military power in foreign policy that is opposed to American civil society, if not taken into account, will weaken civilian institutions and undermine US soft power, which is based on legitimate cultural and foreign policy values. American society, however, has not yet declined despite the split, but if further divisions continue, the United States will lose collective power or national cohesion in foreign policy, exacerbating social conditions and the deterioration of America’s soft power.
If foreign policy becomes more polarized across American society, public confidence in the government and Congress will be further undermined, and parties and people will gradually come to the conclusion that it is better for the United States to be a state rather than a federal one.
In this difficult period, the United States must be able to rebuild domestic and foreign power in the kind of relations it establishes with the countries of the world and its allies, and create the necessary capacity to convert domestic power resources into foreign power and balance it. Avoid excessive foreign policy, especially in the Middle East or with China in order to maintain American power.
If the growth of US productivity is not a good support for maintaining US power and the US economy is at the forefront of high technology, the US economy will inevitably have to sustain itself by recycling the wastes of the European and Chinese economies.
But if US leadership is well-managed, it could be a solution to the financial crisis and the explosion of US debt, which have become major concerns. This concern is controversial today in the soft economic power of the United States, and if it continues, it will create a catastrophe in the American political structure that prevents the transformation of American sources of power into achievements of power.
In such a situation, the political distance between the American parties will increase to an unprecedented rate, and finding sources of power will become a new problem for the United States, which will not even resolve the issue of the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
Now is the best time to question whether the U.S. political system can reform itself in order to maintain U.S. power and overcome future problems, especially since America has no long ways to maintain its global power and hegemony as it did in the past. In order to preserve its prestige, The United States needs to rebuild its economic power and must ignore its military policy short-term and not make the same mistake against China as did against Soviets, with 28 percent of GDP in the Cold War-era arms race, and failed.
One should not be sure that the United States can continue its military behavior simply because it follows a fundamental and common belief in the American political culture. Unprecedented US military power, unprecedented in human history, should not be the source of strategic aimless mischief that destroys US sources of power.
America must know that the world is no longer based solely on the struggle against fascism and Nazism. Unlike in the past, when triumph was largely a military victory in the classical war, it has lost its impact on political and social systems, and the United States must not spend its time convincing public opinion of the cost of endless wars.
Instead of building military commitment and responsibility in remote areas, the United States should think of ways to make American products available to foreign markets and give foreign countries the same opportunity to access American markets. The use of advanced technologies and the use of social networks around the world have created a kind of peaceful coexistence and have provided hope for more security and a better life, but it seems that Americans are not smart enough for the new world order.
Unless the United States spends large amounts of national revenue on military budgets or to compensate for foreign policy mistakes or unnecessary military commitments, there is no need for other countries’ national revenues to be spent on the United States. If part of the same revenues can enter the US economy under normal circumstances and strengthen the internal foundations of the United States.
Many of the international obligations already defined for the United States have lost their significance, and the United States should not repeat history and create new responsibilities for itself. If Washington wants to create a new responsibility, it must be like the time of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait or the genocide in the former Yugoslavia, which added to the importance and prestige of the United States for world leadership.