Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Unease in New York
I just finished taking part in the Carnegie Council panel.
A quick observation, based on some of the questions and the after-panel informal discussion: the unease at the types of accommodations the United States may need to make in order to raise capital and obtain energy; that those who can and will finance our debts, invest in our economy and ensure that we remain powered up may want more overt exchanges in return, or at least that this could end up being a bigger drag on our freedom of action on the world scene than we would want to admit.
Interdependence, of course, reduces other countries' freedom of action; they become stakeholders in American success as well--but interdependence is not a condition we are comfortable with.
Nor are we comfortable with the notion that problems might only be managed, not "solved" altogether--and that some of the structural changes taking place in the global economy are not going to disappear any time soon.
Hope TWR readers have had a chance to view the panel--
A quick observation, based on some of the questions and the after-panel informal discussion: the unease at the types of accommodations the United States may need to make in order to raise capital and obtain energy; that those who can and will finance our debts, invest in our economy and ensure that we remain powered up may want more overt exchanges in return, or at least that this could end up being a bigger drag on our freedom of action on the world scene than we would want to admit.
Interdependence, of course, reduces other countries' freedom of action; they become stakeholders in American success as well--but interdependence is not a condition we are comfortable with.
Nor are we comfortable with the notion that problems might only be managed, not "solved" altogether--and that some of the structural changes taking place in the global economy are not going to disappear any time soon.
Hope TWR readers have had a chance to view the panel--
Comments:
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Nick,you make a very good point about the discomfort American have with "managing" problems that should be solved. Lord Salisbury wrote a piece for the Quarterly Review entitled "Disintegration" that should be more widely read. Focusing mainly on problems in Ireland and general social discontent, he argued that some policy issues are like a chronic illness that can be managed but not cured. Again, the full argument is worth reading. When I mentioned this in a conversation with a small group of American policy analysts and scholars they responded that people in the United States would never accept such a pessimistic approach. Problems have solutions. When I suggested that solutions can be elusive, we went back to the fact that problems have solutions. It was an illuminating conversation
# posted by 
: 3:01 PM
: 3:01 PM
Many of the problems are of our own making. We create them, then push hard for solutions. People around the world get uncomfortable, then angry. Then, we blame them, and create new problems...
# posted by : 3:28 PM
: 3:28 PM
Anonymous at 3.01:
One of the brightest of British post-war Labour politicians, Denis Healey, put Lord Salisbury's point another way -- he remarked 'problems exist to be survived, not solved.'
One of the brightest of British post-war Labour politicians, Denis Healey, put Lord Salisbury's point another way -- he remarked 'problems exist to be survived, not solved.'
# posted by : 10:40 PM
: 10:40 PM
" the unease at the types of accommodations the United States may need to make in order to raise capital and obtain energy; that those who can and will finance our debts, invest in our economy and ensure that we remain powered up may want more overt exchanges in return, or at least that this could end up being a bigger drag on our freedom of action on the world scene than we would want to admit.
This is just laughing-out-loud funny! So the poor dears now understand that after nearly thirty years of "borrow and spend like there's no tomorrow" as well as 20 years of snarling "Thou shalt not have other superpowers before me" to the wold, other countries now have leverage on the US.
And you can tell what the US foreign policy elite are thinking: "Obviously, the only solution is more preemptive wars, to destroy the power of all the others before they can use their new leverage on us. "
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This is just laughing-out-loud funny! So the poor dears now understand that after nearly thirty years of "borrow and spend like there's no tomorrow" as well as 20 years of snarling "Thou shalt not have other superpowers before me" to the wold, other countries now have leverage on the US.
And you can tell what the US foreign policy elite are thinking: "Obviously, the only solution is more preemptive wars, to destroy the power of all the others before they can use their new leverage on us. "
# posted by : 4:18 AM
: 4:18 AM << Home
