We’re not alone in the world
Published 8:23 pm Sunday, December 5, 2010
As President Obama launches a surge of troops in Afghanistan, Americans are surging away from the rest of the world.
For the first time in more than four decades of polling, the Pew Research Center reports that a plurality of Americans — 49 percent — say the United States should “mind its own business internationally” and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.
The trend toward isolationism shouldn’t come as a surprise. The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, combined with national fatigue over two long wars, had to have an effect on Americans’ attitudes about their place in the world.
Nonetheless, it’s alarming. Turning inward doesn’t eliminate the dangers that lurk in the world, nor their ability to reach us. We’re reminded of that as we mark the 68th anniversary on Monday of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, which jolted the United States out of a long isolationist slumber and into an age of global leadership.
Isolationism is about more than military considerations. Economies are no longer penned in by geographic boundaries. The growth of our own economy depends on a comprehensive global strategy that strengthens all nations and maximizes trade opportunities, just as much as it depends on how well we prepare our own children to compete.
But Americans are pessimistic about their economic place in the world, too. More (44 percent) see China as the world’s leading economic power than see the United States in that role (27 percent). That’s a sharp turnaround from just two years ago, when 41 percent saw the U.S. as the top economic power, compared with 30 percent for China.
A nation’s confidence is so easily shaken. The recession and eight years of war have taken a toll, just as the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the Arab oil embargo did in the 1970s.
But such challenges mustn’t become an excuse for an American retreat from the world stage. On the contrary, history shows the power of strong relationships with allies. (See the successes in the two world wars and the first Gulf War.)
America remains the world’s leading economic, military and moral force. It will become stronger by building global relationships, not by pulling away from them. Time will reveal whether the president’s new strategy in Afghanistan is a wise one, but this much is clear: The broader the coalition of nations with us, the greater our chances of success.
We live in an interdependent world. Understanding that, and acting with other nations to increase global security, opportunity and prosperity, does not diminish America’s strength. It enhances it.
