global supremacy is over. That, in turn, underlines the central dependence of the West’s future role on America, on its domestic vitality, and on the historical relevance of its foreign policy. How the American system performs at home, and how America conducts itself abroad will determine the place and role of the West in the new objective and subjective global context. Both issues are wide open today, and ultimately their constructive resolution is America’s current and unique historical responsibility.
The continued attraction of the American system—the vital relevance of its founding principles, the dynamism of its economic model, the good will of its people and government—is therefore essential if America is to continue playing a constructive global role. Only by demonstrating the capacity for a superior performance of its societal system can America restore its historical momentum, especially in the face of a China that is increasingly attractive to the third world. For example, when the United States presented itself as the undisputed champion of anticolonialism at the end of World War II, America became the preferred alternative—primarily in contrast to Great Britain—for those states seeking to bring themselves into modernity via free enterprise. A state perceived by others to be riding the crest of history finds it less difficult to secure its interests. And, while there is yet no explicitly ideological alternative to the United States in this new century, China’s continued success could become a systemic alternative if the American system became widely viewed as an irrelevant model.
In such a case, the West as a whole could be in jeopardy. America’s historic decline would undermine the political self-confidence and international influence of Europe, which then would be standing alone in a potentially more turbulent world. The European Union—with its aging population, lower rates of growth, even larger public debts than America’s, and, at this stage of its history, the lack of a shared “European” ambition to act as a major power—is unlikely to be able to replace America’s once-compelling attraction or fill its global role.
The EU thus faces potential irrelevance as a model for other regions. Too rich to be relevant to the world’s poor, it attracts immigration but cannot encourage imitation. Too passive regarding international security, it lacks the influence needed to discourage America from pursuing policies that have intensified global cleavages, especially with the world of Islam. Too self-satisfied, it acts as if its central political goal is to become the world’s most comfortable retirement home. Too set in its ways, it fears multicultural diversity. With one half of the geopolitical West thus disengaged from active participation in ensuring global geopolitical stability at a time when the world’s new pecking order of power lacks coherence and a shared vision of the future, global turmoil and a rise in political extremism could become the West’s unintended legacy.
Paradoxically, that makes the self-revitalization of America more crucial than ever.
- PART 2 -
THE WANING OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
America, for better or for worse, is the focus of global attention. More than any other country, America’s multiethnic democracy has been and is the object of fascination, envy, and even occasional hostility on the part of the politically conscious global masses. That fundamental reality gives rise to some critical questions: Is the American system still an example worthy of worldwide emulation? Do the politically awakened masses see America as the hopeful portent of their own future? Do they view America as a positive influence in world affairs? Given that America’s capacity to influence international events constructively depends on how the world perceives its social system and its global role, it follows that America’s standing in the world will inevitably decline if negative domestic realities and internationally resented foreign initiatives delegitimize America’s historical role. Therefore, the United States, with all its inherent and historically unique strengths, must overcome its staggering domestic challenges and reorient its drifting foreign policy in order to recapture the admiration of the world and revive its systemic primacy.
1: THE SHARED AMERICAN DREAM
Over the decades, the “American dream” has captivated millions and drawn them to America’s shores. It is not an accident that America continues to attract the most motivated, not only among the already highly educated or those seeking a higher education but also among those determined to break out of the enslaving cycle of poverty in their own less-privileged societies. Many foreign scientists, doctors, and entrepreneurs still see more rewarding professional opportunities for themselves in America than at home. Their younger counterparts seek access to American graduate schools because an advanced degree from the United States enhances their career opportunities both at home and abroad. Many of the almost 1 million students who study here each year remain, seduced by America’s opportunities. Similarly, the impoverished Central Americans who in some cases risk their lives to gain access to America’s low-skill job market make an individual choice that sets them apart from those who do not dare embark on such a risky journey. For such motivated individuals, America still stands out as the world’s most attractive shortcut to a much-improved life. And America has been the ultimate beneficiary of their driving personal dreams.
The key to America’s prolonged historical appeal has been its combination of idealism and materialism, both of which are powerful sources of motivation for the human psyche. Idealism expresses the best in human instincts for it sanctifies the prioritizing of others over oneself and requires social and political respect for the intrinsic sacredness of all humans. The framers of America’s Constitution encapsulated that idealism by seeking to structure a political system that protected shared fundamental assumptions regarding the “inalienable rights” of the human being (though shamefully not outlawing slavery). Political idealism became thus institutionalized. At the same time, the very reality of America’s open spaces and absence of a feudal tradition made the material opportunities of the newly emergent country, with its unlimited frontiers, appealing to those who desired not only personal emancipation but also self-enrichment. On both scores, citizenship and entrepreneurship, America offered what Europe and the rest of the world then lacked.
The twin appeals of idealism and materialism defined America from the very start. It also attracted from across the Atlantic people who desired for their own homelands the promise inherent in the American Revolution. Whether it was Lafayette of France or Kosciuszko of Poland during the American war of independence, or Kossuth of Hungary in the mid-nineteenth century, their personal commitment to America popularized in Europe the image of a new type of society worthy of emulation. European admiration was further stirred by de Tocqueville’s trenchant dissection of the workings of the new American democracy and by Mark Twain’s captivating glimpses of the unfettered uniqueness of America’s frontier life.
But none of that would have been as uniquely attractive to the immigrant masses flocking early on to America were it not for the young nation’s abundant material opportunities. Free land and the absence of feudal masters beckoned. Economic expansion, fueled by the cheap labor of immigrants, created unprecedented business opportunities. Letters from immigrants to relatives back home spread a tempting vision, often a highly exaggerated one, of their personal success in the pursuit of the American dream. Alas, some would have to endure the painful discovery that America’s streets were not in fact “paved with gold.”
The absence of evident major external threats and the sense of secure remoteness (in contrast to the prevailing realities across the ocean), the new awareness of personal and religious freedom, and the temptation of material opportunities on the open frontier made the idealization of this new way of life synonymous with the reality. It also helped to obscure, and even justify, what otherwise should have been profoundly troubling: the progressive eviction and then extinction of the Indians (with the Indian Removal Act, passed by Congress in 1830, representing the first formalized case of ethnic cleansing), and the persistence of slavery followed by prolonged social repression and segregation of black Americans. But the broadly idealized version of American reality propagated by Americans themselves was not only a gratifying self-image; it was also widely shared abroad, especially in Europe.
