While other powers around the world reassert their national interest against a United States that no longer holds universal promise, the Arabs do not, writes Azmi Bishara in the final instalment of a four-part analysis of the world after Bush
A Very Good Piece
By Azmi Bishara
Al-Ahram Weekly
"......What the world is witnessing right now is the end of a phase of monopolar US foreign policy that had reached its zenith of belligerency between 2001 and 2006 under President Bush. The actual rise of this belligerency started with the war in Kuwait and the beginning of the dismantlement of Yugoslavia under Bush Sr and continued with the Clinton administration's intervention in Serbia, Somalia and Afghanistan. However, the current ebb is not yielding to an opposing camp championing an alternative theory. Rather it is ceding space for greater self-assertion on the part of other nation states and popular wills.
There is no multi-polar alliance against another pole. What we have are major capitalist powers and an advanced state capitalism outside the Western camp, but not one that claims to lead the rest of the world in a political and ideological struggle against the US. What we have are a multiplicity of sovereignties and with just as many perceptions of national interests and national security. They are not trying to impose these perceptions on the rest of the world, as the US is doing. They merely want to set certain boundaries to the unbridled and unsupervised power of the US. These are not democratic forces. However, a democratic power harmed by US hegemony might find it in its interests to join up with these forces, as might a non-democratic power. There is no new camp set upon igniting a new Cold War, just a revitalisation of certain national political concepts in some major powers that are demonstrating increasing confidence in their efforts to keep that superpower from dominating their national affairs and resources and from imposing its will on others through the exercise of an expanding military might that remains unchecked by any laws......
Another area that has seen a resurgence of sovereign national will is Latin America where the left has begun to benefit from a greater margin of democracy and from the US's inability to sustain its Cold War tactics against democratically elected governments, such as those in Venezuela and Bolivia. The governments opposed to American heavy-handedness in their region have begun to search for ways to coordinate with countries in the East rebelling against the dictates of the monopolar king. But, once more, this is a sign of countries exercising their will against the backdrop of the greater manoeuvrability available to them in this new post-Bush era world. It is not indicative of an emerging global camp or a new Cold War.
Unfortunately, it appears that there are no Arab regional powers capable of taking advantage of the new global circumstances. Arab governments are unable to even coordinate among themselves in order to fill the vacuum that is gradually growing in this region due to the erosion of American influence. Iran and Turkey might be exploring ways of working together towards this end, but not the Arabs, who are still dredging up facts and legends about the historic animosity between the Ottomans and the Safavids in the hope of stirring up sectarian trouble between them. Meanwhile, the descendants of the Ottomans and Safavids are sitting around the negotiating table working out possible arrangements to fill the security and political vacuum, such as in Iraq, following the departure of US forces.
At a time when, if the necessary resolve can be summoned, it is easier than it has been for a long time to make international alliances based on a mutual interest to reject American dictates, the Palestinians have been left stranded to face the US- Israeli alliance. The attitude seems to be that this is "fate". But it is not."
A Very Good Piece
By Azmi Bishara
Al-Ahram Weekly
"......What the world is witnessing right now is the end of a phase of monopolar US foreign policy that had reached its zenith of belligerency between 2001 and 2006 under President Bush. The actual rise of this belligerency started with the war in Kuwait and the beginning of the dismantlement of Yugoslavia under Bush Sr and continued with the Clinton administration's intervention in Serbia, Somalia and Afghanistan. However, the current ebb is not yielding to an opposing camp championing an alternative theory. Rather it is ceding space for greater self-assertion on the part of other nation states and popular wills.
There is no multi-polar alliance against another pole. What we have are major capitalist powers and an advanced state capitalism outside the Western camp, but not one that claims to lead the rest of the world in a political and ideological struggle against the US. What we have are a multiplicity of sovereignties and with just as many perceptions of national interests and national security. They are not trying to impose these perceptions on the rest of the world, as the US is doing. They merely want to set certain boundaries to the unbridled and unsupervised power of the US. These are not democratic forces. However, a democratic power harmed by US hegemony might find it in its interests to join up with these forces, as might a non-democratic power. There is no new camp set upon igniting a new Cold War, just a revitalisation of certain national political concepts in some major powers that are demonstrating increasing confidence in their efforts to keep that superpower from dominating their national affairs and resources and from imposing its will on others through the exercise of an expanding military might that remains unchecked by any laws......
Another area that has seen a resurgence of sovereign national will is Latin America where the left has begun to benefit from a greater margin of democracy and from the US's inability to sustain its Cold War tactics against democratically elected governments, such as those in Venezuela and Bolivia. The governments opposed to American heavy-handedness in their region have begun to search for ways to coordinate with countries in the East rebelling against the dictates of the monopolar king. But, once more, this is a sign of countries exercising their will against the backdrop of the greater manoeuvrability available to them in this new post-Bush era world. It is not indicative of an emerging global camp or a new Cold War.
Unfortunately, it appears that there are no Arab regional powers capable of taking advantage of the new global circumstances. Arab governments are unable to even coordinate among themselves in order to fill the vacuum that is gradually growing in this region due to the erosion of American influence. Iran and Turkey might be exploring ways of working together towards this end, but not the Arabs, who are still dredging up facts and legends about the historic animosity between the Ottomans and the Safavids in the hope of stirring up sectarian trouble between them. Meanwhile, the descendants of the Ottomans and Safavids are sitting around the negotiating table working out possible arrangements to fill the security and political vacuum, such as in Iraq, following the departure of US forces.
At a time when, if the necessary resolve can be summoned, it is easier than it has been for a long time to make international alliances based on a mutual interest to reject American dictates, the Palestinians have been left stranded to face the US- Israeli alliance. The attitude seems to be that this is "fate". But it is not."
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