The success of 21st-century American statecraft will be defined by its ability to meet transnational challenges with a sustainable playbook that breaches the gap between domestic governance and foreign policy.
All in American Politics
Ali Wyne — an expert in the field of geopolitics and a rising voice in U.S. Foreign Policy circles — joined ITS’ Liam Kraft (Director, U.S. Foreign Policy Programme) to discuss U.S. foreign policy and grand strategy in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, rising great power competition, and the U.S. debate over democratic values.
At a time when a polarized American political environment challenges U.S. capacity to construct and follow through on durable strategies for American engagement in the world, old enemies around the globe are empowered with new tools at their disposal. Authoritarian governments have found new ways to more effectively silence critics, harass opponents, control or influence the information at home, and manipulate online content to serve their own interests.
Domestic factors are substantially affecting the way the U.S. engages international affairs and will carry long term implications for the face of American power, values, alliances, and grand strategy abroad. Surveying the U.S. political landscape for ways to restore the foundations of American democracy is as important for the future of U.S. foreign policy as analyzing the global system within which the country operates.
As political leaders around the world address the COVID-19 crisis, many have seen their approval ratings increase, in some cases dramatically so. What is at the root of this shift in popular support, how long will it last, and what might it mean for the upcoming U.S. presidential election?
In the United States, like much of the Western world, people are losing faith in Democracy. To many people, Democracy is as they have experienced it. What is absent from our societal conceptions of Democracy — and therefore our faith in it — is Democracy as we haven’t experienced it. Yet to the keen observer, the failures of Western democracies are not inherent to Democracy itself, but rather to our implementations of it.
In the last decade, we witnessed many stable Western democracies degenerate into populist rancor and anti-establishment upheaval. Yet, it is the capacity of the people to learn and adapt that has always proven Democracy’s ace. Perhaps now more than ever, Democracy needs a course-correct.
The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 left Spain scrambling to reassemble a broken economy and combat soaring unemployment. European austerity measures and Catalonian dreams of independence have since occupied all of Madrid’s bandwidth and effectively back-seated Spanish foreign policy for over a decade. With the rise of Pedro Sánchez and the wounds of the financial crisis healing, Madrid has turned its attention back to Brussels, and is ready to assume the role of a leading power in Europe.
The events of late September perfectly illustrate how the Syrian Civil War has devolved into a series of proxy wars, with nations being involved in the country in a variety of ways. The recent announcement of a Turkish and Russian backed de-escalation zone in Idlib and the airstrikes by Israel against suspected Iranian pro-regime forces in Latakia, just show the variety of regional nations with interests in the country. In order to understand the impact these developments will have on the actions of these countries moving forward, it is crucial understand why such a large number of nations have become embroiled in this conflict.
North Korea has not produced any measurable and verifiable denuclearization measures after the Singapore Summit in June, and yet the United States seems to have no intention of imposing sanctions or applying pressures other than UN sanctions on North Korea. In contrast, the Obama-era Iran Nuclear Deal saw resounding success in demilitarizing Iran’s nuclear program. Yet, despite these achievements, the Trump administration has withdrawn from the pact and reinstated sanctions on Iran.
For the last two centuries, the United States’ has developed and adapted to the demands upon it economically and geopolitically. Yet the American system of governance consistently fails to address both age-old and emerging domestic policy concerns such as job replacement from automation & free trade, political redistricting, and congressional paralysis. Rather than the fault of any one President or party, this is the result of systemic failures in the American style of Democracy.