Week 14 – Consalvo

For this week’s post I was drawn to the New York Times article, “Is the United States Done Being the World Cop?” I think this article is extremely relative with discussing the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan and the current conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine/Russia.

For one side, I’ll argue that the United States has become to intertwined and dependent on the rest of the world and should begins to practice isolationism. This does include not getting involved in armed conflicts in which we have no direct reason to be in. The most common question I hear in regard to this topic is, “is it worth American lives?” This I believe is the best argument for the United States not sending ground troops to defend Ukraine. After getting out of 20 years of fighting, the American people do not want more lives lost for something they may or may not agree with. The world tends to look toward the United States to solve their problems and at what point do we say no. But, there is more to it than the surface level of war behind being the world police.

Over the past century, the United States has been the world’s hegemonic power and I think that it is in the best interest of both the government and the people of the country for it to stay that way. Yes, we provide a lot of aid to countries and assist when called upon, but most of the time it is for our economic prowess. The world looks to us to solve their problems, but in return we ask for trade advantages and other economic benefits. The main reason that the United States is in the powerful position that it is, is because the dollar is the world’s reserve currency. This stemmed from Bretton Woods, but more recently the petrodollar. Saudi Arabia and the rest of the OPEC countries agreed to price oil in dollars, if the United States provides military support to those countries. This is the most perfect example of why the United States plays the world police and if the country wants to keep the economic advantage and quality of life it has, they must realize the give and take that comes with it.

In my personal opinion, we are the greatest country in the world and with that comes responsibility. If we do not provide the security to those who need it, they will turn to China. It is not ideal at times, but our daily life would look completely different if China provided security and had the economic advantages that we have.