Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

International relations and the new world governance
experienced, is going to have very substantial effects on the international
balance. Crises are always a time of opportunities. We historians tend
to use them pedagogically to explain overall processes, because it is at
such times that genuine entrepreneurs take risks and apply revolutionary
technology bringing about surprising changes that have repercussions on
their competitiveness for years. But it is not only a question of genuine
entrepreneurs versus administrators. Crises require societies as a whole
to adapt to the new circumstances. Those who make flexibility their goal
and do not feel trapped by history to the extent of refusing to renounce
certain conquests or services will be stood in good stead for the future.
They might be mistaken in their choices, but they will always have the
chance to rectify anew. Since its founding the United States has displayed
a «pioneering spirit», ever willing to strike camp and venture in search
of new lands to colonise. Months before the financial crisis of the «junk
mortgages» erupted, Europeans were surprised to hear Americans talking
naturally about the seriousness of the crisis that was approaching,
the need to thoroughly review energy policies and the impact this would
have on the American way of life. We do not know if the US government
will make the right decisions, but what there is no doubt about is that
Americans are more and better mentally prepared and willing than other
peoples to make changes.
However a society long characterised by a particular type of conduct
can change. The Americans will not always be as they are today. The «pioneering
spirit» which shaped the country and is still clearly perceptible to
travellers who explore these parts will not necessarily survive throughout
the following generations. The recent election campaign has brought to
light new trends in US public opinion. Out of the one hundred senators,
none hailed from a more liberal background than Barack Obama. Despite
his short biography, his political career is clearly bound to a number of
causes: racial integration and development of the «welfare state». To a
certain degree Obama is an updated version of Lyndon B. Johnson’s
«Great Society». The conservative revolution spurred by Ronald Reagan
was based on a denouncement of those excesses, their uselessness and
the perverse effects they had caused. He proposed as an alternative a
return to individual responsibility along with a smaller state. Reagan is part
of the national heritage, a point of reference for many reasons. Obama
has vindicated him in order to avoid facile comparison, but his aim is in
fact to undo Reagan’s political work while ushering in a wave of cultural
hegemony and democratic policy. His term began with an unprecedented
level of state indebtedness and economic interventionism. He has asked
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