It is ironical. In the early 20th century, the
West was overconfident to assume “white man’s burden”, which led to the zenith
of imperial capitalism, and ultimately, the most devastating World Wars in history.
But today, a reluctant and self denying West is responsible for global
disorder. It is not just Obama’s superpower suicide. In Britain, the House of
Commons rejected R2P action to Syria, which gave a blow to Cameron’s ideal of
inheriting Blairite liberal interventionism. Also Germany turns less willing to
endorse European integration in view of the burden of helping financial crisis
of Greece and Cyprus,which gives rise to isolationist nationalism.
During the Cold War, a solid Transatlantic
alliance was the anchor of the Free World. This helped American alliance spread
across the Asia Pacific and the rest of the world. After the Cold War, NATO expanded
their mission to Afghanistan, in order to manage globalized threats out of the
Euro Atlantic sphere, typically Al Qaeda terrorism. But currently, both America
and Europe are hesitant to use their hard power and soft power for global and
regional public interest, and pursue heir own recluse happiness. What happened
with the West?
Both in the United States and Britain,
people are tired of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Partisan politics and weak
economy hurt their global policemanship. Autocracies like Russia and China, and
terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda make use of such annoyance for their
favor (“The weakened West”; Economist; September 21, 2013). The heir of
Greco-Roman civilization and the creator of universal liberal norms is
disposing the burden for global public interest.
TO BE CONTINUED