OPINION & EDITORIAL
Sharing the World Stage
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Tuesday, March 5, 2002
<P>”America struts about so vainly on the world stage: so powerful, so proud, so egomaniacal, that she seems to need nobody else — except perhaps for someone to hold up a mirror in which she can admire herself. America likes to feel pretty, but to many abroad she conveys a different image: a narcissist drunk on power, an autist with a finger on the trigger … .”
So writes columnist Wolfgang Koydl in the Feb. 23 edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s major newspapers.
Are we in love with ourselves? Probably. But while America does make a lot of mistakes, there is also an awful lot to love. In fact, if we are oblivious to anything, it is that we won’t always have it this good.
Consider what has been happening east of New York and west of California. In particular, there are four regions that boast populations upward of one billion each and that seem fixed on a course toward a far greater global role: Europe, India, China and the Islamic world.
Three hundred million Europeans now use the Euro as their official currency; eventually, this number may reach a billion. Meanwhile, resource-rich Russia is succumbing to the economic influence of Germany, and European industry continues to court countries like Iran.
Critics point to growing protectionist tendencies in Europe, with steel as the most recent and aerospace as the most blatant examples. For the first time, a proposed merger between two major U.S. companies that had passed U.S. regulatory muster was scuttled last year after it failed to win European regulatory support.
Politically, the European Union is in many ways a far more cohesive unit than that which exists under our federalist system. Policies in such areas as taxes and trade are standardized by some 80,000 pages of regulations, a constitution is expected in 2003, and just last week British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for the creation of “a new world superpower, right here in Europe.”
But connotation blinds us to this reality: just as surely as “America” must be one indivisible nation, our historical rationale insists that “Europe” must still be an awkward and fractious conglomeration of distinct peoples. We fail to look past the lines on our political maps, and we likewise fail to recognize the opportunities and challenges a unified Europe will present.
Even farther from our shores, India is increasingly exercising its muscle. From computers to movies to service to missiles, this rapidly developing country clearly has the potential to become an economic, military and nuclear powerhouse. Some are openly questioning why a democratic country with a 6th of the world’s population doesn’t occupy a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Not only does the People’s Republic of China already enjoy this powerful veto power, it threatens or simply occupies most of its neighbors, India included. Moreover, China’s leaders are eagerly exploiting the combination of furious nationalism and traditional acceptance of authoritarianism to transform the country into a capitalist behemoth unencumbered by the inefficiencies inherent in the observation of human rights.
The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics will give the Chinese government the opportunity to encourage and display the nationalism of its citizens on a scale far greater than that in Salt Lake City.
And by then, China’s space program will be well on its way to its stated goal of landing a person on the moon. If anything shatters our confidence in American dominance, it will be the broadcasted images of the Chinese flag flying high above our planet.
Back on Earth, Muslim countries are witnessing a population explosion, while Islam continues to spread worldwide. Some experts estimate 20 percent of Islam’s believers could be described as fundamentalist.
The Arab world has already proven itself a powerful voting bloc in the UN, with last year’s takeover of the UN Conference on Racism the most notable example. OPEC may now care more about profits than propaganda, but oil is no longer the weapon of choice for the disaffected.
Whether our ability to act unilaterally is threatened by those with whom we fundamentally disagree or merely diluted by those friends who have become equally important players on the world stage, we simply cannot look to the future as one of assured American dominance.
To put it plainly, Europe, India, China and the Islamic world are set to become the four new billionaires on the block. The global marquis will get mighty crowded, and America will no longer be able to steal the show.
For some, like columnist Wolfgang Koydl, this might be cause for celebration. For the United States, while it may change our tactics and even our influence, it will not alter our fundamental character: We are defined not by our dominance but by our determination to live up to our ideals.
To this end, we must continue to look in Koydl’s mirror, not to admire but to challenge ourselves to keep America great — and to keep America good. It is this commitment that is the essential source of our pride and the ultimate guarantor of our strength.
Bryant Walker Smith (bsmith@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in civil engineering.
