I am currently working on a research paper for presentation to the ISA in late March. The focus of the paper is Challenges to US Foreign Policy. One of the challenges that I identify that applies to the US and also to Western Europe is what I am calling leadership fatigue.
In my opinion, the US is demonstrating many signs of leadership fatigue. It is not new. We saw it after the Vietnam War when the US was demoralized for years. Now, after two long wars that appear to have solved little or nothing, we are seeing it again. Except for a few policy pundits who want the US to become involved anywhere at any time, most policy makers seem to have become disenchanted with foreign military involvements.
Our own infrastructure has suffered in the past decade. Our schools, in particular, and our roads, for example, are showing the results of inattention. We have built dubious projects in other countries but invested little in our own infrastructure. Some argue the military involvement cost only a small share of our GNP, but we can question those statistics. The narrow military costs or the broader investment costs and the unfilled projects in our own country? I look at the larger picture, not the narrow military budget.
I have always been an internationalist, since my early days studying international relations. But, even I feel the intense leadership fatigue of our nation.
I am not suggesting that we fold our tent and come home. This is not 1972.
I think we have to judge each step judiciously. Limited, strategic international involvement should be our mantra, not global policeman on call.
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