That Used To Be Us
By Phar Kim Beng
Founder/Chair
Strategic Pan Indo-Pacific Arena
Strategicpipa.com
Twitter: @indo_pan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Strategicpipa
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This is a book about America’s getting back its bearings, and if one should, balls. Michael Mandelbaum and Thomas Friedman argued in a compelling manner that, while America was sleeping on the job, China had stolen ahead. China has the fastest supercomputer in the world; its infrastructure is littered with high-speed railways and gleaming stations, and its airports are a shopping havens that put the best of American malls to shame. But, the authors also admitted that this is not a book about China. Rather, it is a book about the weakness of America in at least four issue areas: energy consumption; globalization; digitization; and chronic deficits in debts. On all four issues, none of the major political parties have been able to address them head-on. One doubts they would be hopeful of any changes from President Trump, notwithstanding their self-designation as cautious “optimists”.
The derring-do that they witnessed in America, as a child, according to both authors, can be resurrected. What is ironic about this advice is their mutual call to politicians to forsake the need to go back to the days of Ronald Regan. They believed that the age of Ronald Reagan is over, and gone. Instead, one should be preparing to train and produce more Steve Jobs.
The problem is, both authors may have succumbed to an overdose of American self-cynicism; or what is otherwise also known in academia as “declinism”. Paul Kennedy was among one of the first historians to speak of an “imperial overstretch”. The Club of Rome report in 1975, as did the Trilateral Commission several years later, all warned America about the impending collapse. In one report, produced by scholars at MIT, America would deplete and diminish all its vital resources by 2010. The date came and went, but America is still around.
So, the issue is, do the authors have the right context when they argue that America is mismanaging all four issues above? Take energy consumption, for example. While it is true that America is addicted to oil, fracking and new discovery of shale gas have made America less reliant on the Middle East if it should want to. The same goes for digital revolutions. America is at the forefront of Big data Analytics and the Internet of Things. While the schools in America are in some crisis, some of the best universities in the world are still in the US. Joseph Nye once wrote “Bound to Lead” to underscore the many advantages that the US continues to have. They range from a democratic political system to an overarching military alliance system. These structural advantages are not easy to undo; even if Donald Trump makes a mess of America over the next four or eight years. Why?
Well, America is brilliant at self-renewal, as Samuel Huntington once said. The beeline of talents to America, if allowed to enter the US, will make America the “beacon of the hill” to paraphrase Ronald Reagan. Where America is weakest, at this moment in time, is this pervasive belief that it can continue to borrow indefinitely from China and Japan. Loose credit will lead to the sapping of the American mind and soul.
During the War of 1812 against Britain, America did not have the necessary economic strength. It had to borrow from various banks and individuals to fund its war efforts. From that painful lesson, America eventually negotiated a truce with Britain. And, a century later, America was literally the most powerful country in the world. America can still project its power. But it has to get its financial act together. In this sense, both the authors are right to be alarmist.
