One of the most important side effects caused by the Ukraine war is undoubtedly the return encouraged by the US government in terms of the priorities agenda. We talked about it in previous columns.
In terms of international politics, Biden came to power by trying to reinforce two main ideas: that he would privilege so-called “new themes” such as the environment, to the detriment of traditional security issues; and it will renew the role of the United States in this century’s most promising spheres of influence, such as Asia, to balance growing Chinese power in the region and the world.
However, with the outbreak of the War in Ukraine, the sense of urgency and the perception of risk underwent necessary and obvious changes. Biden overcame his plans with an unwanted conflict, but he had to live with it.
Since then, he has sought to extract an opportunity from the crisis in Eastern Europe to show his leadership as well as the current president’s campaign slogan, the United States’ commitment to allies and multilateralism.
On the external front, the result has been a swift and clear response to the conflict, a strengthening of NATO, and increased trust among traditional partners. Internally, Biden has managed to partially halt his decline in popularity and dwindling approval ratings.
However, long-term effects are limited for the United States. The country remains a prisoner of its own destiny: it cannot stray from an agenda that puts the military issue at the center of public debate, and cannot, on its own, define the geopolitical axis around which it plans to retreat.
On the contrary, they are either held hostage to the effects of actions they provoked in the past, or they are phagocytosed by third-party crises from which they cannot escape. They entered this century by recognizing the importance of looking to Asia, but they have never been able to implement a cohesive strategy for doing so. First they paid attention to the tensions in the Middle East, especially Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, now they are again focusing on managing the situation in Europe.
Politically, the expected side-effect of turbulent times is that the US government, in search of a safe and accepted discourse for domestic consumption, tends to hold on to the old obsession it has left behind: the international export of its own values. The problem with this is that perhaps the world of 2022 will no longer be able to adapt to this agenda.
source: Noticias
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