Is Obama Managing American Decline?
Thus, despite all his talent and vision, Obama is unlikely to lead us back to the glory days of the Cold War. His fate is to guide the nation through a painful adjustment to a more plural world. His best strategy will be to lead the U.S. away from an isolated and militarized pursuit of global hegemony. This will be the right policy for us as an overextended nation, but doubtless will be intensely criticized at home. Abroad, it will also disappoint the comfortable expectations of those who expect Obama's America to reaffirm its role of deus ex machina in charge of world order. With luck, however, Obama may prove the president needed for our times: one who can bring America back to balance while inducing all the world's great powers to join in a concert to define and pursue their collective responsibilities and interests. [emphasis mine]
I suspect President Obama would have an easier time paring back America's overseas commitments if he approached America's domestic budgetary over-extension with the same sense of urgency.
In this vain, Stephen Walt offers up some lessons he's gleaned from his summer reading on the British Empire:
Britain's leaders fretted constantly about any erosion in their image of superiority, fearing that one or two setbacks might lead their subjects to rise up or encourage other great powers to poach on Britain’s holdings. As a result, Britons found themselves fighting to defend marginal possessions in order to preserve their position in the places they believed mattered. Ironically, the refusal to liquidate far-flung commitments early so as to focus resources on more vital interests may have hastened Britain's imperial decline.
I suspect future historians will look back on America's obsession with the Middle East in much the same way. In thirty years, will the Middle East matter more to the lives of Americans than Asia?
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