P Kharel
WHEN trouble spikes in a corner of the world, international concerns well up. When regional powers lock horns, the anxiety level aggravates. And when a superpower launches a tirade against equal with rapid-fire accusations that not even its own allies are convinced of, fear of the worst infects much of the world. The United States’ President Donald Trump, who seeks a second four-year term next November, is firing ominous salvos with disturbing frequency against the world No. 2 economy—an exercise that gathers momentum with the rise in the death toll of Americans on account of COVID-19.
The latest public opinion polls indicate Trump’s popularity falling. In any case, 50 per cent popular support was something Trump craved for during his three and a half years in office. Now, less than six months from elections, he desperately looks for or creates issues and targets with a potential for him to convince voters about his capability to serve their interests best.
As things stand, being big does not automatically certify a country’s standing as right, whatever its military might, economic muscle or both. Dialogue and consensus are the prescribed mechanism for addressing claims and conflicts. Unfortunately, the very countries that present themselves at the forefront in making such recommendations to other governments betray their tilt to flouting the same when they show shocking reticence in belling the cat that makes disturbing noises.
Arrogant attitude
Once the coronavirus reached the US shores, Trump geared up to putting the entire blame on China, where the disease was first traced. Contrary to his expectations, the World Health Organisation refused to oblige him. In early May, the Trump administration announced the suspension of its financial contribution to the WHO. China stepped in with $2 billion to ease the agency’s difficulty.
Deeply disappointed over the WHO not issuing confirmation of Trump administration’s charges regarding the origin and spread of COVID-19, the US, last week, broke ties with the widely respected health agency. Most key allies of the US have refrained from showing any solidarity with the superpower, at least at this stage. This is not the first time that the US has walked out of an international agency. The UNESCO came under Washington’s wrath twice when the US quit the agency in a huff, only to return to the fold eventually.
Things should not be allowed to go out of hand. For a man who has relentlessly condemned the media in his country as constantly feeding fake news to the American people, it is an irony that international focus is beginning to be placed on whether the unproven whistleblower himself is disseminating fake information. Regarding the coronavirus spread, Trump initially downplayed the pandemic, in what might be termed ignorance let loose.
Trump wants the rest of the world to drastically reduce economic cooperation with China, which is destined to take the top spot overtaking the US, according to the US-dominated World Bank. The Democratic Party has not come out strongly against Trump’s moves. It, too, is deeply involved in making electoral calculations that have prompted it to be extra cautious in picking on issues that might be catering to popular sentiments whipped up by the president.
After all, when it comes to the centrality of American interests, Washington throughout its independent history is found bulldozing its way, irrespective of the merit of an issue. Its policy of “splendid” isolation in the 19th century, together with declaration of the Monroe Doctrine, forbade European powers and the rest of the world from interfering in Latin America’s affairs. The message was that European powers should stay clear from the Americas or be prepared for an inevitable war. Historians mark this as the beginning of Washington asserting for itself the role of an international police in the Western hemisphere.
Incongruously, however, in the mid-19th century itself, the US gunboat diplomacy forced Japan to open up to trade with the US merchants with an alternative of the prospect of Tokyo being destroyed. Washington’s complicity in the infamous Opium Wars, driven chiefly by Britain and France, is no secret. The two wars made Beijing wilt to Western powers’ demand for unrestricted opium trade in China, which benefited several Western powers of the day. This marked the practice of imposing unequal treaties on the less powerful.
Today, the level of world awareness has soared. Even if the style of imposing their own agendas on the rest of the world has changed, the dominant powers want a vice like grip on global measures that ensure their continued economic dominance and economic profits. If others were to try asserting their rights and questioning the dominant group’s course of action, they unleash terms like “jingoism”, “ultra-nationalism” and “fundamentalism”, among others disparaging comments coined for circulation aimed at those trying to stand up to the dictates of the dominant powers that brandish “modern values” and “global interests” to support their methods.
International laws and regulations are made only after consensus among a select few is reached behind the curtains, followed by pressures on other powers, while the vast majority of the international community is expected to sign the same on the dotted line as if the traditionally dominant knows what is best for them.
Eye on election
Today, the battle of the big powers should not sound or be seen as overbearing, lest it loses the edge for good. The US under Trump is running out of steam as it arrives at the gate of losing the massive dominance it had commanded for seven decades. The November election has preoccupied Trump so much that discretion is thrown to the winds. If others in his party and the rest of the American society do not come out strongly against the on-going state of affairs, the US could lose its international standing quite deep.
This has to change for a whiff of fresh openings and approaches. Any society out of step with the demands of the clearly shifting sands of change will be a poor loser, for a new world order is clearly in sight. Both the US and China should reconcile to the development. So should their cousins in the prevailing international divide.
(Professor P. Kharel specialises in political communication.)
