Sergio Romano

Of Sergio Romano

Source: Corriere della Sera, 8/04/2018
After the collapse of the USSR and the end of Soviet hegemony in Central-Eastern Europe, the United States believed it had won the Cold War. It seemed to me that they made a mistake and that the causes of the collapse were different; but the world, since then, he had to note that there was no important event in which America did not feel called to make suggestions, impose solutions or make judgments. The style could change from one president to another (Barack Obama's style was very different from that of George W. Bush) but America had become, as defined by Madeleine Albright, the "indispensable nation". His wishes were not always granted and his orders followed, but there was no table in international diplomacy without a seat reserved for the United States.
It seems that the picture is changing and that there are now events in which the great North American state is more a spectator than an actor. A few days ago we saw images of three leaders (the presidents of Iran, Türkiye and Russia) who had won the Syrian war and had gathered to divide the spoils. A few months earlier we had learned that the main Chinese political leader had implicitly challenged American power with a constitutional amendment that guaranteed him a sort of imperial annuity. The reasons for the change are numerous.
The wars fought by the United States in recent decades have not helped its military credibility. The crisis of 2008 it demonstrated that alongside the power of Washington there existed on Wall Street another power that the president and Congress were unable to control. It had already happened in 1929, but in times when America did not have the global responsibilities that it had after the end of the Second World War. Since then, globalization has favored the birth of new powers. The more the United States reveals its shortcomings to the world, the more the number of those ready to defy its will grows. Read More