Often the dominance of the United
States is compared to that of the Roman Empire in a warning that
great empires can fall if they stray from their founding principles.
People search the annals of the Roman Empire to try to find
particular causes for the demise of that far reaching empire. Some
blame the lead that was used in their plumbing. Some cite the decay
of morality but it is hard for me to give credence to that claim
since the morality of that empire consisted of brutal oppression and
dictatorships. But some argue that the alleged decay of American
morality will lead us down the same path. Whatever the case it has
to be recognized that the Roman Empire lasted hundreds of years while
the nation of the United States has only been in existence less than
250 years and only 50 or so of those years have seen global dominance
by our nation. I think there are probably simpler and more evident
explanations for the demise of great empires.
Over the sweep of history the morass of
endless war in which we now find ourselves has a duration shorter
than many but it is emblematic of the way empires begin to fray at
the edges. We are somehow unable to extricate ourselves from
debilitating stresses in little countries half way around the world
for reasons that are difficult to understand. We used to be able to
just say it is all about the oil since our thirst for that oil was so
dramatic but now we have developed capacity to become one of the
world's largest producers of oil products that self-sufficiency is
within our grasp, especially if we take advantage of renewables. So
why are we still fighting there? The answer is that we are still
fighting there to maintain the American hegemony over the area. If
we do not project power there then the Russians or Chinese will.
Left to their own devices the multiple tribes of the area would
likely revert to boundaries similar to what existed prior to WWI.
But now the hegemonic needs of the
United States are more urgent in Eastern Asia and the Pacific Rim
countries and our government wants to focus efforts on the “pivot
to Asia” but we find it difficult when our attention and resources
are being drawn back to an area we would just as soon turn away from
if we weren't uneasy about who their new friends would be. And
therein lies the problem with empire. Sometimes it just gets too
darned big to handle. The problem is that the United States is
having too much trouble keeping a grip on friends in the west to deal
with developing new relationships in the east.
Rome did this when the empire split
into separate parts and the expanse became to great to control by the
Roman army through its methods of conquest and brutality. It began
to fray at the edges until it collapsed under the weight of the
demands of keeping the military in the field to quell resistance. It
was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire. The
British Empire also used military prowess to hold onto the far flung
territories but also introduced a method of enterprise that treated
the native populations as tenants on their own property. This
allowed the British to fund the military and the quasi-governmental
agencies but the desire for self government and global pressures
finally reduced the British Empire to not much more than the United
Kingdom and even the members of that have occasional independence
movements. You may recall that a group of the British possessions in
the Americas threw off the yoke of serfdom to assert their
independence.
But what was it that kept those empires
from maintaining their superiority over their territories? It was
simply that the supply lines became too long and too expensive to
maintain. The Romans, the British, the Russians and now the United
States are finding that maintaining these supply lines and endless
military actions are putting too much pressure on the treasury.
The United States was able for a while
to maintain these relationships without military presence through the
use of trade and by offering an umbrella of protection to countries
in which our corporations were interested in doing business but now
there are other players. Now we find ourselves having to reinvest in
Europe to hold back the bear when we need to invest in Asia because
of the threat from the dragon. I don't necessarily mean military
threat although it could come to that. I mean the threat of trade
from which all empires draw power. The United States has always
eschewed the title of “empire” but the similarities are not easy
to escape. While we may not be as overtly interested in military
conquest we are very interested in the conquest of trade. The truth
of the matter is that all conquest is a matter of trade, of financial
advantage for domestic business entities.
This whole thing is about the Trans
Pacific Partnership, TPP. It is about forging economic alliances
with the nations of East Asia and the Pacific Rim that will bind us
together in a union that will benefit our domestic and foreign
trading partners and discourage military conflict that would be a
disadvantage to all concerned. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
It is a way for nations to coexist without overt conflict but it does
not mean that it benefits all partners in the same way. Just as
NAFTA united North America in an embrace of trade so it will be, we
hope, for the TPP. The problem is that some people, yes, individual
people, get left behind. This is the reason for much of the
disagreement over the TPP. We now know that NAFTA cost us millions
of jobs and harmed as many families. It may well have been that
global market forces would have taken those jobs anyway but there
were no provisions for taking care of those people unable to forge a
new existence in the time allotted to them. It may be the same with
the TPP and that is what some in the United States want to prevent.
Some want to prevent undue harm to those whose jobs will leave by
offering assistance and by demanding that some of the same worker
protections be enforced in the countries of the other parties to the
agreement.
The world is changing and I don't think
we can stop it. We can only try to make the best of it. We
desperately need ask our other western partners to step up to the
plate and assume a larger role in keeping their part of the globe
safe for democracy. We need our Middle Eastern allies to take more
responsibility for their part of the globe. We need to stop the
endless drain of lives and treasure to the pursuit of war.
My take is that some see this, others
don't.
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