How the world works” and “Who rules the world?”
The Illiberal USA
After the second world war, the US emerged as the global superpower. In the middle of ideological warfare, the seeds of the liberal world order were sown. The dawn of Liberalism in the 20th century advocated liberal democracy, free-market economy, human rights, and rights to self-determination, among others, as a panacea for the destructed world, particularly Europe. However, over time, the US turned out the biggest lip server to Liberalism and infringed the principles of Liberalism one by one vehemently.
In the political discourse, every term has two meanings: the literal meaning and the doctrinal meaning – that is used to serve the power. Under the mask of liberalism, the US has always adopted the latter one. Take the example of “democracy”, advocating it for years, US was always lukewarm to implement the same in Third world countries. Noam Chomksy maintains that the US policy in Third world countries was to oppose democracy if its result cannot be controlled. The parliamentary governments were either barred or overthrown in Iran, Brazil, Chile, and the Dominican Republic. Moreover in Guatemala, President Kennedy supported a military coup to prevent the resuscitation of democracy.
The evils of the US don’t end here, what she did in the name of liberal internationalism and security is well known. The US-led Iraq war caused 295,000 lives. The infrastructure is devastated. Poverty has upsurged. The US rejected the proposal for negotiations and blocked the diplomatic track deliberately to carry out aggression and violence. During the Reagan-Bush era, the US-supported South Africa vehemently in plundering and destroying Namibia. Roland de Vries writes in his book “eye of the firestorm” that, over a million and a half people, were killed in the neighboring countries, the number of losses caused in Namibia is yet to be added to this tally. After all, who doesn’t know the story of Afghanistan?
The concept of the peace process is limited to US initiatives. The two-state solution of the Palestine-Israel conflict under the security council resolution of 1976 introduced by Arab states and supported by the Palestine Liberation Organisation was denied by Israel and the US-backed her. The door for the peace process was blocked. As Noam Chomsky maintains in his book “Who rules the world?”, everything was on the table, PLO’s offer for mutual recognition, Arab states, the members of UNSC but Israel’s violent aggression and the Janus-faced US weren’t. The US has always blocked the peaceful settlement either by using veto power or by implied permission to Israel for carrying out destruction.
In the ongoing Israel-Palestine escalation, the US once again showed its lopsided approach by backing Israel’s inhumane horrific violence on Palestinians – including kids and women. The escalation has taken more than 200 lives and left many injured in Palestine. On diplomatic terms, the US vetoed third time the adoption of a joint security council statement calling for a stop to Israel-led brutality in Gaza. Even though, its call for a ceasefire was denied by Israel after a little adjournment and hasn’t faced any sanctions or US-led liberal internationalism yet. All in all, the world is different for neutrals and close US allies.
To look it through a wider perspective we can discern the translation of Samuel P. Huntington’s “clash of civilizations”. The staunch supporters of Israel are offshoots of Britain: Australia, Canada, and the US. The Jewish settlement is the final colonialization of the Europeans. Moreover, the US support for Israel is driven by many factors but religious principles remain the topmost. These are major cultural factors and play a vital geostrategic role.
The Biden Administration is just new wine in the old bottle. In the book “How the world works (based on Noam Chomsky’s ideas)”, it was maintained that in the post-World War II era every President of the US is either a war criminal or involved in war crimes. Ergo, the lip service America is giving to liberalism is susceptible by its actions in the global world, particularly in the Middle East. The US has not bet an eye against the prevalent human rights violation in the globe by its allies, rather it is inclined to bolster such acts by providing military aid.
The US cast the sheet of liberalism on the whole globe but has never been under the same. It has advocated the notion of liberalism for a long and tried to disperse it in every corner of the world, however, in the practical world it has remained Realist and will always be. As Hans J. Morgenthau rendered Liberalism “idealism”, haplessly it remains one. With everything discussed above, it is no odder to call it “The Illiberal US”.
Haseeb Dal
