A Repost from April 7, 2018
Harry Targ
Alfred McCoy, In the Shadows of the American
Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power, Haymarket
Books, 2017.
In a background call attended
by American Military News, a senior administration official said, “President
Biden made clear the implication and consequences of China providing material
support — if China were to provide material support — to Russia as it
prosecutes its brutal war in Ukraine, not just for China’s relationship with
the United States but for the wider world.” Laura Widener, American Military News,
March 19, 2022.
Rachel Bronson, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote that “in 2017 we saw reckless language in the nuclear realm heat up already dangerous situations and re-learned that minimizing evidence-based assessments regarding climate and other global challenges does not lead to better public policies.”
In fact, the distinguished team of researchers
affiliated with the Bulletin who regularly assess the danger of
nuclear war declared that the probability of nuclear war has increased over the
last year. Using their “doomsday clock” as a metaphor the dial was moved to two
minutes to midnight; midnight signifying the onset of nuclear war. This warning
moves the clock one minute closer to possible nuclear apocalypse than the prior
several years. The scientists believe that the danger of nuclear destruction
and devastating climate disaster is greater now than at any time since the
early 1980s.
The context for this grim prediction is well-reflected
in a new book by University of Wisconsin historian Alfred McCoy, In
the Shadows of the American Century. The author reviews the
rise of the American empire since the 1890s. He describes the twentieth century
emergence of the US as the hegemonic power in the international system based
upon economic superiority and overwhelming military power. He suggests,
however, that this economic and military dominance is being challenged today.
US relative economic power is declining. Participation in global wars has
become a military quagmire. And global resistance to imperialism is spreading.
Perhaps the most critical challenge to the American
empire, he suggests, is the rise of China, particularly as an economic
successor to US control of the global political economy. He reviews data
concerning Chinese domestic development indicating that the country has emerged
as the second largest world economy. In addition, the Chinese have developed
trade with every continent, invested broadly everywhere, and established an
Asian financial and trading system that challenges the historic US presence in
the region. Finally, China has expanded transportation, trade, investment, and
corporate ties with Europe. In sum, the author makes a compelling
case for the economic rise of China and the relative decline of the United
States in the global economy. In economic terms the global system is changing
from unipolarity to multipolarity.
In reference to the United States, McCoy draws a
portrait of an empire in decline, particularly in terms of relative economic
competitiveness. In response to this decline McCoy provides detailed
information to suggest that the United States has embarked on a program to
expand militarily programs around the globe and in outer space. This
latest phase of militarism includes preparing for cyber space war, occupying
space (in parallel ways in which the United States occupied land in the
twentieth century), developing biometrics to identify potential enemies, and
increasing drone warfare capabilities. These projects involve the creation of a
whole panoply of weapons that exceed the imagination of science fiction. In
sum, therefore, the new militarism is designed to forestall and overcome
declining empire.
This book is a must read for the peace movement
because it indicates the dangerous world in which we live and the increased
probability of global destruction. It suggests the need for a two-pronged
response to the United States empire in decline. First, peace activists must
continue to oppose militarism in all its forms--spending, fighting, and
non-transparent interventions across the globe.
Second, peace activists need to develop a public
discourse that celebrates the emergence of a multi-polar world, a world in
which more countries can participate in global policy-making. The alternative
to an energized peace movement could be, as the atomic scientists warn, a
nuclear apocalypse.
