America must come to grips with an uncomfortable reality: Our world influence is beginning to wane. The two main crises that have dominated the airwaves for the past few weeks, the Malaysian Airline downed by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatist forces and the latest chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have made this development perfectly clear. We have overstretched, overreached and overplayed our influence for too long.
Take the first crisis, for example. We have to realize that Europe is a more important player in dealing with Russia than America, and Europe has no interest in slapping Putin’s wrist. Flying in the face of U.S.-led sanctions against the country, Russia has secured a $400 billion natural-gas deal with China and continues to exercise its energy sector influence on a dependent Europe. In addition to energy deals, France proceeded with its warship trade with the Kremlin. It’s not to say that these events occurred to spite America, but they did occur in spite of American protest.
The Netherlands has not led the international community against Russia. If it, the country that has suffered the most in this tragedy, hasnn’t already directed action against Russia, it probably won’t ever happen. And if that’s the case, then Sen. Lindsey Graham’s, R.-S.C., foreign policy plan of simply calling Putin a “thug” in order to unite countries against Russia will be ineffectual.
Putin invaded Crimea and annexed the country not too long ago, and the U.S. tried to rally the international community to stop the annexation. The majority of the world did not comply, and a Russian Crimea is now a given.
A new shift in Europe has taken America by surprise: Britain and France, the two European powers that have tolerated a strong American world influence, are taking a backseat in the continent to Germany, the European Union’s de facto leader. A solid relationship with Deutschland has become undone by the revelations of NSA wiretapping on the German Chancellor.
As foreign policy expert Ian Bremmer recounts during the Germany-U.S. World Cup match, “As American fans chanted ‘U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!’ the Germans countered with, ‘N-S-A! N-S-A! N-S-A!’”
Germany is dubious about a strong American world presence, and Europe seems to be adjusting itself to a world that does not automatically bow the knee to every American fiat.
Now take a look at the ongoing crisis in the West Bank: Secretary of State John Kerry is still trying to broker a deal with the two warring sides. But Kerry, just like the last time he tried such a deal, will do so in vain. The violence will continue with or without an American-led deal. We shouldn’t kid ourselves that we make a difference in peace talks.
One regional power is surprisingly throwing its hat into the fray. We have to come to the queasy realization that Egypt — despite its humanitarian rights violations — is holding a fair amount of power in the region. As a National Review Online headline reads, “Israel Now Sees Egypt as More Reliable Ally than U.S.”
It is unclear if Egypt will have more success in the conflict than we have, but it is telling which countries are filling in the “influence vacuum.”
I personally find it odd that so many pundits want America to directly intervene in Ukraine and the Middle East. But the countries that are within our greatest sphere of influence — Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras — we have absolutely no control over. It’s hard to square that circle.
America does have an important role in the international community. But simply giving in to our knee-jerk reaction of controlling all world events is not feasible. There will come a time when the rest of the world will just stop listening to us. Unfortunately, it looks like we haven’t realized it’s already happening.
[Michael Beato is a UF economics junior. His columns appear on Tuesdays. A version of this story ran on page 6 on 7/29/2014 under the headline "World events don’t need US’ blessing"]
