Unilateralism vs. Multilateralism
While the US has been a key figure in global politics over decades, we have seen a decline in their influence. One example of this is by the Trump Administration as they held a meeting with North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un, but failed to stop them from firing missiles over South Korea and Japan. Under unilateralism, we saw the rise of other countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China in the forefront of global leadership. The Trump Administrations’ America First policy was more them allying themselves with countries that could threaten them. Under this policy, we were now in the shoes of countries that allied with us, in exchange for protection. We didn’t attempt to be proactive and use our new “friendship” with Russia and Saudi Arabia help build relations with countries they were allied with. We just gave them what they wanted, a one-sided relationship with these countries.(Daalder and Lindsay 7) We turned our backs on our close allies, and aimed to become close with the new global powers, all while touting we were putting America first.
The readings for this week emphasized that the US’ lack of using diplomacy, specifically under the previous administration, was cause for the US losing its significant role in global affairs. We didn’t use diplomacy in guiding our alliances, we used a winner-loser system, where Russia and North Korea were seen as winners that we needed to cling onto. We left unilateralism by ruining our previous relationships and being undermined by our relationships with the new global powers. These new relationships did nothing for us, and disrupted the entire chain of international relations. Now that we have returned to multilateralism, we must fix all the disruption we caused to it.
The only way the US can defeat China and Russia’s political strongholds in Africa and Asia, is by reestablishing our diplomatic relations with these countries. Russia and China have been throwing money into these regions and helping their development, while the US has deserted these countries. During the Monroe Doctrine, we saw the US politically interfere with European colonization in the Western Hemisphere. While the US promised not to intervene in the newly founded countries, and still did, this type of multilateralism is what we need; stopping our rivals from intervening in countries that we have relations with. When we have China and Russia’s neo-colonization of Africa and South Asia, which has weakened America’s diplomatic relations in the region, we must double down on multilateralism. America has obviously ruined their own legacy in these countries by turning their backs on them under the previous administration, and our meddling in elections and propping political leaders we supported instead of those chosen by the people. But if we are able to rebuild our relationships with more transparency, and adapting to a world where we need to rebuild our global leadership position, we can return to our “throne.”
One reply on “Week 2: Nailah”
Nailah,
There is certainly plenty of evidence that the former President could not bring himself to oppose much, if anything, that Vladimir Putin said or did (including that he organized interference in the US presidential election of 2016), but that may have been because they “have the goods” on him (i.e., some sort of compromising evidence). The situation with respect to North Korea is different. Mr. Trump thought he would go down in history as a “winner” if he could convince Kim Jong-un to give up his nuclear weapons and missiles, but instead he got played by Kim and got nothing.
Your main point about reestablishing and expanding diplomacy is certainly correct. Given how the Chinese have moved in to try to take advantage of any political space that we have left in various countries in Latin America and Africa, in particular, the US must reinvigorate its diplomacy and economic assistance to counter this. Under the Biden administration, this has begun to happen, but there is a lot of work that remains to be done. –Professor Wallerstein