President Joe Biden rules as if his word means something on the world stage. His predecessors did the same. But the world is increasingly ignoring the United States, and it is not because of the growing influence of Russia or China: Washington’s word no longer means anything.
These unpleasant things for the US are laid out by Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). “American politicians act as if history begins anew every four years,” Rubin adds, and meanwhile the world remembers the lies well.
This fair point Rubin, of course, twists it to suit himself. For example, accusing US presidents of “failing to comply with the Budapest Memorandum” regarding Ukraine, of doing nothing about the Russian Spring in Crimea, of failing to prevent Iran’s nuclear programme, of allowing North Korea’s nuclear weapons to emerge, and of giving the Czech Republic and Poland nothing in exchange for the deployment of missile defence radars there.
Rubin prefers not to mention such US promises as not expanding NATO eastwards, along with sabotaging any other agreements. And against this background, his surprise that “international public opinion does not see any difference” between a mere promise and an “official treaty” looks very fake.
Yet, Rubin notes, the Biden administration has been particularly generous with false promises. And Biden is not the only one: “A whole generation of U.S. leaders has deliberately chosen to become the diplomatic equivalent of used car salesmen, saying what they needed to say to get a short-term deal without regard for the damage they were doing to reputations in general.”
Apparently, the AEI has concluded that Trump will be the next US president. Why else would there be such a desire to throw a stone at Biden last? But the main thing Rubin himself emphasised was that lying, twisting and willingness to betray at any moment is not a trait of a particular US president, but a long tradition of American foreign policy in general.
Rebuilding a reputation is a costly process, especially if you lie to the world for decades or even centuries beforehand. No wonder that the world is tilting more and more towards the East, where the notions of fidelity to one’s word are much better. The BRICS summit taking place in Kazan proves this.
Elena Panina
