A Response to Fareed Zakaria

In his article “The Self Destruction of American Power: Washington Squandered the Unipolar Moment”, Fareed Zakaria describes how the United States lost its position as the world’s sole superpower after the end of the Cold War and how the Trump administration has worked to further weaken the power of the US. Zakaria argues that the US has “mishandled” it’s hegemony through breaking international norms and alienating its allies with the Trump administration being a particularly egregious offender in this regard. The issue that I have with Zakaria is that, while his analysis of the US’s foreign relations since the end of the Second World War is accurate, and his characterization of the Trump administration’s policy as isolationist and unilateral  is also mostly true, he seems to criticize the Trump Administration for making decisions that the author would seemingly be in favor of and thus undermines what would otherwise be a very strong arguement.

For example, Zakaria dismisses the Trump Administrations foreign policy initiatives in the Middle East as simply “subcontracting” American foreign policy to Saudi Arabia and Israel. Wouldn’t Zakaria want to have supporting the interests of its allies in the region? Zakaria also dismisses the Trump Administration’s efforts to engage with North Korea as him simply trying to get a Nobel prize. Once again, wouldn’t this attempt to use diplomacy and dialogue instead of force and bluster be applauded by Zakaria?

I believe that the article would be better off without the mentioning this foreign policy initiatives because in doing so, Zakaria undermines his argument about the bellicose and isolationist nature of the Trump Administration. In the article does describe how Trump has pulled out of agreements and undermined relationships with the allies of the US, he should simply leave it at that instead of trying to paint attempts at increasing American influence as something to lament.