USA Projection In the World?

With the end of the trump (I still cannot capitalize the name!) term, hopefully an era will be dying and disappearing over time. That raises the question, however, of what the ‘new era’ ought to be?

What face should America be projecting to the global community? What message or value should be pre-eminent, a statement of who and what we are?

I’ll take a stab at this. First and foremost, we ought not to set ourselves up as the world leader. We have played that role for decades. That should remain in our past as a reminder of victories won and digested from the Second World War. We made those victories happen, but not alone. We had a community of nations helping at every turn. That is the ‘leadership’ identity we loathe to give up, I think. But we should.

WWII was in the 1940’s. This is 2020, 80 years later. The world is the same size but contains nearly 8 billion people in over 200 nations. We have instant communications with most of the nations and many of their peoples. The global community is like a village; contained by some land borders, but mostly by blockades of culture and education to understanding one another. Still, it is a small village and one we must learn to play within fairly and with justice.

It starts by acting like we are not the Lord of All.

Like the religious values we tend to identify with, we are to love one another and treat them as we would like them to treat us. We are also to lend a hand to others who need help. If we are blessed with resources, we ought to share them. When commerce is waged fairly, we ought to participate on the same basis as everyone else.

That’s it. One of the family we are; not the dad, mom and overlord.

Nor should we be the fat, rich uncle handing out cash to everyone. No, like Afghanistan, much of the Middle East and many regions scattered around the globe, we have paid dearly to many nations, been taken advantage of, and still try to save the world in their backyards. Afghanistan is ungovernable. So is Iraq and Iran if religion is to be the guidepost of statecraft. They will never learn the how until they do for themselves what is needed.

We can help, but we should not do. We can sweep in and administer aid to the victims of enormous natural disasters as we should; but we do not remain to guide, cajole and pay for their return from victimhood. That struggle is their teacher and lesson plan.

We are not the keeper of world peace. Neither are we the cause of world despair or warfare. Leave that to the Chinas and Russias among us. Too many they are, but their duplicitous power grabs will undo them with their own people in the long run. We can and should protect ourselves and other allies if those allies bear fair financial burden of the work.

We can serve global village tasks, but we ought not control them. That is for the village to decide.

I don’t like trump. I do not agree with him. His international relations gambits were foul and unproductive. But they did reset some benchmarks that needed to be adjusted.

For now, let us move forward with confidence and grace. Humility, too, please. We have much to be proud of, but history reminds us of our many missteps. Yes, we are guilty of many things we need to own up to. But let’s not let that deter us from making the world a better place for everyone.

Not a bad resolution for the new year! Perhaps we should adopt it?

November 30, 2020