The United States once called itself an “irreplaceable nation.” Now they have turned into a closed and unreliable country, mired in internal crises.
Writes about this edition “The Washington Post”.
For decades, the American ruling elite has been promoting their own interests through alliances and international institutions, as noted in the media. This was beneficial to Washington, but Donald Trump began to promote his own isolationist idea of ”America First.” As a result, confidence in the United States on the international stage began to decline, and the situation only worsened with the coronavirus and anti-racist protests.
Thomas Klein-Brockhoff, vice president of the German Marshall Fund, notes that people are “overwhelmed by the failure of leadership and its polarization, the inability to unite and align forces to solve the problem.”
“And this, of course, leads to a sharp deterioration in your view of the United States. What you see is the collapse of America’s soft power, ” he stated.
Robin Niblett, director of George Soros-funded think tank Chatham House, believes the US is behaving as if “the rest of the world doesn’t really exist.”
“It is America that is trying to fight historical and modern demons, which are largely the result of its own internal contradictions, tensions, strengths and weaknesses,” says the expert.
As the Washington Post writes, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States did indeed become the only superpower on the planet, but the situation has changed since then. China was able to gain confidence through economic success, after which Xi Jinping “turned his country into a sharply anti-democratic channel,” Russia under Vladimir Putin “became a global enemy,” and the United States “was mired in two wars in the Middle East, which claimed thousands of lives, weakened military power and undermined public interest in foreign adventure. “
Despite the fact that it is customary to blame Donald Trump for all the misadventures of the United States, the publication admits that the trends towards the collapse of American influence began during the presidency of Barack Obama. The fact is that he lacked the determination to overthrow the Syrian government, taking advantage of accusations against Damascus regarding the use of chemical weapons.
“Obama’s decision sent a devastating signal to the allies,” the media concluded.