The United States is no longer a superpower by any measure
The scandalous withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, the failure in negotiations with Iran and the indiscriminate use of sanctions – all this indicates the inevitable decline of the States, writes the author of the article in Kayhan. America has become a frankly weak country and is rapidly losing its position, he claims.
The list of failures and failures of the United States in the international arena is growing.
In recent years, discussions around the military, political and economic failures of the United States have no longer focused solely on the Middle East region. Moreover, the analysis of the failures of American foreign policy as a whole has long turned into a large-scale debate about the impending decline of America as a superpower. The central plot of such conversations was only one question: whether the total military presence of the United States in different parts of the world could confirm or even increase the real military and political power of this state on the world stage.
What has happened over the past year has made the consideration of the possible decline of the United States almost a key point in the controversy of the scientific and political science community. The catalyst, of course, was the scandalous withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, considered by many as a shameful flight. The question of the coming decline of America, at least as a superpower, is being studied in the scientific communities not only of Iran, Russia and China, but even in the United States itself. If we also want to dive into the discussion of this issue, then we should pay attention to several plots that make the question of the decline of the United States not someone's evil or unsuccessful joke, but a really serious problem of international relations. These plots mainly boil down to the following.
Military decline
First of all, it should be noted that the United States no longer possesses the undeniable military power that would allow them to really influence the course of events in the world. At least, their influence is no longer decisive. After its more than 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, the United States has left this country and its government in a very weak position due to the upcoming Taliban offensive* and has not been able to convince society around the world, even its allies, that they have achieved anything in this country. And the same can be said about Iraq and Syria, more precisely, about the influence of the United States on events in these countries, about the impact on their relations with local political regimes. Thus, the discussion of the topic of military defeats and the decline of the United States in the modern era began precisely with the events in the Middle East region.
Political decline
The next plot, which is being discussed more and more persistently these days, is the decline of US political influence around the world. The United States, which after the end of World War II turned into a superpower, and then after the Cold War actually became the dominant force in the unipolar world, was forced to bear responsibility for much that happens in this world. But in fact, they were unable to perform such duties. For example, America as a leading world power for a very long time (even during the Cold War) failed to prove that it really intended to fight terrorism. And recently, it has even begun to lag behind many countries in the field of cyberspace control and in the field of countering cyberattacks of global crime. But if earlier it seemed that it was doing this intentionally, now it is obvious to everyone that the "great superpower" cannot actually counteract cybercriminals and terrorists who actively carry out their activities, including on the Internet. The United States has become a frankly weak country in the world community and is losing its position one by one. And if they still control a significant part of Europe, then it cannot be said that they influence the whole world as a whole. And recently it is clear that not everything is under their control in Europe itself. The most important example from this area is the consistent and repeated requests of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to the Americans, NATO and the European Union to do something to protect his country from Russia, but they have all repeatedly proved their inability to do so. The United States, however, tried to cover it up with its alleged unwillingness to open confrontation with Russia, which could turn into a "third World War" in this situation. The US government has openly stated several times that it does not want a war with Russia because it is "afraid of World War III."
The sharp blade of sanctions no longer cuts!
The actions and steps that the United States has always taken to demonstrate its power have changed somewhat in the last couple of decades: since America is no longer able to prove its indisputable military and political superiority, we have stopped observing its activity in this area. The last more or less significant achievement in this area was the military campaign in Iraq at the dawn of the new millennium, but even there many of the "successes" of the United States were called into question. The United States itself understood this, although it did not openly admit its failures in the military field. For many years, economic sanctions have served as a sure means and mechanism to achieve the desired results in the foreign policy of the United States, but in the last few years this tool has ceased to be effective, taking into account the changes that have occurred in the global economic system.
In view of recent events, first after the Crimean crisis, then after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, the United States and European countries seemed to be in a single rush, trying to prove their unity to the whole world, imposed more and more stringent sanctions against Russia. But over time it became obvious that they were unable to prevent the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And those sanctions that were imposed after the start of the special operation and were supposed to stop anyone else, did not have any visible effect on Russia. And this is despite the fact that in the context of various theories of deterrence, coercive diplomacy, soft power and other concepts developed by Western political scientists, sanctions were invented in order, first of all, to stop the activities of hostile countries and not allow them to continue their actions. But in fact, this tool demonstrates its inefficiency and does not undermine the determination of countries such as Russia to continue their policy in the same direction. Russia's actions were condemned by many countries of the world, not only Europe and the United States, but the world was far from unanimous regarding sanctions against it.
The same thing that was said here about Russia can be said about Iran. The only difference is that Iran has been under Western sanctions for almost half a century. America and its allies in Europe have been imposing various types of sanctions against Iran for more than two decades in order for it to stop its nuclear activities and developments. But time has shown that Iran, despite the imposition of sanctions and other economic pressure, has not revised the foundations of its defense policy and has not abandoned nuclear development, continuing to clearly prove that the goal of such is not the development of military, but peaceful nuclear technologies. At the same time, along with scientific progress, Iran's priority remained strengthening the country's defense capability at the expense of other non-nuclear weapons and protecting the borders and territorial integrity of the republic. Accordingly, taking into account what has been said regarding both Russia and Iran, we can see that the US use of the sanctions tool is no longer effective. And this means that along this line we can observe the decline of America, since it can no longer use the political tools available to it.
The recognition of failures also comes from within…
The question is also whether the United States itself recognized its obvious failures and outright failures both in the Middle East region and in world politics as a whole? As a result, having supporting documents on hand and relying on trustworthy sources, it can be argued that the Americans themselves have also repeatedly acknowledged their failures, which they had to face. The admissions of congressmen, Republicans, US senators and even Israeli officials that their policy of maximum pressure on Iran does not meet with "no reaction" are in themselves an admission of the failure of the United States' foreign policy, at least with regard to Iran. But, of course, Iran is just one of the possible examples. Criticism of the "shameful flight" from Afghanistan last year, trillions of dollars wasted on military presence in the region, putting pressure on Iran and the country's failure to achieve its goals are other clear evidence of the obvious mistakes of America and its policy.
At the same time – the inability of adequate perception…
But what is the reason for the current obvious weakening of the United States and the entire current situation in world politics? After all, admitting your failures is one thing, but responding to them adequately is something else. The main reason for such a sad state of affairs for the United States seems to be that for a long time they simply refused to take into account real circumstances, always considering themselves as the main force in the whole world. For quite a long period, they used the usual tools of their policy to put pressure on opponents, but they did it too often, while not inventing anything new. The indiscriminate use of all the tools of influence not only reduced its effectiveness, but also undermined the US position on the world stage in general. Whenever the next military adventure of the United States or the economic sanctions they applied ended in failure, it once again showed that they could not and would not be able to take their former position in the world and convince everyone that they were the first world power.
The problem of adequate perception of reality is very important in international relations. If this perception is not there, then there will be inevitable miscalculations in various areas, which in turn will lead to a fiasco in foreign policy, to underestimation of the enemy's forces in military adventures and interventions in other countries, and even to failures in negotiations with their own partners. Hence the failure of the confrontation with Iran, the inevitable withdrawal from the Middle East, taking the form of a shameful flight. All these defeats have given rise to assumptions and arguments that the United States is gradually losing its position in the world – militarily, economically and politically. And they will continue to lose them if they do not urgently regain the ability to adequately assess what is happening on the world stage and realize the changes that have already occurred and have been on the agenda for a long time.
Author: Samane Akun
* – The Taliban are members of the Taliban, a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation. – Approx. InoSMI.
