Lot's Wife Edition 4

Lot’s Wife • Edition Four
The Collapse of the American Empire:
From the Greatest Superpower to a Failed State
Words by Gursewak Singh
250 years.
The average age of an empire, from conception to crumble. Some empires live
a short life and end up as a mere sentence in the pages of history, while others
endure for centuries and have nowhere enough pages recounting their rise or
fall.
The last empire that fell was the Soviet Union. Born amidst war and from a
revolution of the people, the Soviet empire endured the Great Depression, an
invasion from Nazi Germany and a bloodbath on the eastern front of World
War 2. But it could not sustain an ideological war against the west. It could no
longer instigate conflict in bordering regions to maintain its sphere of influence
and it could not maintain its own integrity. Thus, one by one the republics
declared independence. With nothing more to be done, Gorbachev resigned
and rendered all Soviet institutions defunct.
In 1991, in the wake of the fragmentation and dissolution of the Soviet Union,
the unipolar moment was here and there had never been a country with such
immense power.
The United States stood poised, the western world flanking it, without any
other country to rival it. Ancient empires and old kingdoms could not even
compare to the might of the US. As the Twin Towers fell in September 2001,
the country was able to rally allies and old foes to its side and could swing its
diplomatic and military weight as it willed.
In 2003 it did, despite more than 36 million people protesting against war,
the US with its ‘Coalition of the Willing’ invaded Iraq on claims that they
had weapons of mass destruction (a claim that was later proved to have been
manufactured). The status of the US as a superpower in a unipolar world
empowered them to make this move. The Iraqi invasion also marked the most
interventionist the US had been.
To reach this unipolar moment, the height of the American empire, took
travelling on a long road.
With the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the US has sought to expand
not only its territory but its influence as well. The ‘Manifest Destiny’ took
the original colonies westwards subjugating and slaughtering many Native
American nations, coming into conflict with the colonial powers of Europe,
and purchasing vast swaths of land for an absolute bargain. The Monroe
Doctrine established an American sphere of influence over both the Americas,
forbidding any European country to interfere on the continent. Later in the
century, the US waged war against Spain and took control over Cuba, Guam,
Puerto Rico and the Philippines, establishing footholds across the Pacific and
asserting their dominance in the Americas.
By the end of the 19th century, the American empire had already established
itself as a military great power. In the 20th century, it would become an
economic and cultural great power despite trying its best to remain isolated.
The New York Stock Exchange plunged the world into darkness as the
Great Depression brought economies crumbling, pushing millions into
unemployment and starving many more. It also resulted in significant social
and political changes in many countries, for better or for worse.
The American entrance into World War 2 turned the tide for the allies, from
the D-Day landings to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the world
sought to recover and rebuild, Americans used the opportunity to fashion
the international order so as to entrench their hegemony. The Marshall Plan
funnelled American money into western Europe through grants and loans,
tying Allies and former Axis countries to the US, rebuilding their industries,
and re-starting international trade. The construction of the international
monetary, governance, and security systems was led by the US, ensuring they
sat at the head of the table, and American culture was broadcast through
radio, television, and on the upcoming internet—American power was to be
protected against the onslaught from communism and the Soviet Union.
And we know the American empire endured the Cold War.
Nonetheless, we have seen cracks form in these systems and in the American
projection of their power as their domestic politics shifted. This was first
brought to the forefront with the election of Barack Obama who promoted
a less interventionist foreign policy, denouncing the Iraq War and proposing
to withdraw American troops from active fronts. As conflicts arose and
international relations fractured, Obama’s reluctance to immediately take
leadership which the US had historically assumed meant it diminished
American relevance, on the battlefield and during peace talks. The greatest
failure of all was Obama’s failure to respond to the Syrian Civil War—the nearly
decade-long insurrection continues still. Other conflicts have broken out in the
Middle East. Authoritarian governments have risen in Europe and in South
America, suppressing civil liberties and freedoms, unopposed by the ‘leader of
the free world’. Chinese foreign policy is moulding the international system to
their advantage without anybody rivalling it.
Through the Obama Administration, the American empire began withdrawing
from the international stage, and his successor has only helped accelerate this
process. Donald Trump’s presidency, despite all differences, is on the same
trajectory as his predecessor.
What non-Americans failed to see during the years of Obama was that despite
outward appearances of progress, hope, and change, the domestic issues
underlying the election of Obama continued to grow. The global financial
crisis of 2008 only served to exacerbate them. Economic, social and racial
inequalities—coupled with systemic racism pushed the richest American
further away from the poorest every year. While the stock markets make
headlines with record-breaking corporate valuations and profits, the American
working class and poor lack access to affordable healthcare, do work for an
abysmal minimum wage and little benefits, all while the basic cost of survival
goes up.
These conditions have been laid bare as the coronavirus pandemic spreads
like wildfire—more than 2 million American have contracted COVID-19
and more than 156,000 have died as of writing this. More than 20 million
Americans lost their job and had to rely on an insufficient social safety net—
some with little or no savings had no other option than to continue working to
put food on the table even as it posed a risk to their own life. Forced to make
a choice between staying at home to protect their health or going to work to
make ends meet, produced a tinderbox vulnerable to going aflame any time.
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