Stars And Stripes: Kissinger warns senators of 'systemic failure of world order'
WASHINGTON — Three former high-ranking State Department officials warned a Senate panel on Thursday that the United States is facing potential, catastrophic confrontations as global order erodes.
The United States is now in a national security race against time to prepare for the growing global destabilization, said the former secretaries, who have served under generations of presidents.
“The international situation facing the United States is unprecedented,” Henry Kissinger, the iconic former secretary of state, said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. This is “more than a coincidence of individual crisis across various geographies. Rather, it is a systemic failure of world order.”
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WNU Editor: Truth be told .... the world order has been eroding for a very long time.
Former U.S. Secretaries Of State Kissinger, Shultz, And Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage Warn Congress That The 'World Order' Is Eroding
Kissinger: Nuclear proliferation greater threat from North Korea than a strike -- The Hill
Kissinger: If North Korea keeps nukes, other nations will seek them -- Defense News
Kissinger, Shultz Warn of Rising Nuclear Perils -- VOA
‘Systemic failure of world order’: Kissinger & elder statesmen take on modern challenges -- RT
6 comments:
If I was Henry I'd be more worried about the chair he's in. It's trying to swallow him.
Voices from other eras, commenting on the things that never change.
James is of course correct that the balance of power in the world always is changing. Having said that, I agree with Kissinger, Schultz, and Armitage that the balance of power is changing against the United States and the West.
Here are some thoughts:
1. The Cold War was primarily an ideological confrontation between the Marxist-Leninist world view (e.g. dialectical materialism and all that) and the traditional liberal democratic Western world view. While very dangerous and bloody (through proxy wars) both sides had an interest in avoiding a full nuclear exchange, which they did.
2. The new ideological confrontation is between the traditional liberal democratic Western world view and militant Islamism, what politically incorrect people call Islamo-Fascism. The difference between Islamism and Communism is that many Islamists devoutly believe in a divinely ordered, eschatological violent showdown with the West. Think Revelation and armageddon, and you get the idea. Such Islamists do not want to avoid a nuclear war; to the contrary, they welcome one as the instrument by which Allah will slay infidels. Such views are common at the highest levels of the Iranian Government and in ISIS and al Qaida; although all three disagree with each other theologically, they agree regarding their loathing for us.
3. In addition, competition between nation states pursuing national interests is reviving. This is more focused on disputes between national interests than ideology. Russia, China, and North Korea are examples. Of these, I think the most dangerous for the USA is China. In China's feverish self assertion, they most resemble Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II. That is not a good precedent.
4. Relative to all the challengers, the United States and the West are weakening, militarily, economically, and philosophically. Many in the West no longer believe our own values of liberal democracy and freedom. What the Soviets called the "correlation of forces" is shifting against us.
5. In my view, this is what Kissinger, Schultz, and Armitage mean when they discuss the gradual systemic collapse of the world order. In my view, they are right.
Publius. As always .... it is a joy to read your analysis. Could not say it any better.
Thanks Publius,
I don't know about the being right part. Yes the balance is shifting against us (as per #4 above)some of us don't believe in ourselves anymore. I do think Publius that this is a phenomena rooting back to how WWII was ended and what the accepted "world view" was decided upon.
Your #2 assertion is dead right, and for many reasons there some in the West who just refuse to admit it.
I do not think though that the US has seen the top of it's potential ......yet.
As always a pleasure to hear from you.
There never was an Old World Order.
It may have looked like it to some, but the sands are always shifting under your feet whether you can see it or not.
The British World Order did nothing but slow Russia down, but it did not stop Russia. Russia kept taking bites out of the hide of the Ottoman Empire. Britain went to war in Crimea with Russia specifically to prevent it.
True, if Britain had not fought Russia militarily and diplomatically (implied threats) Russian might have captured Constaninople in the 1870s. Then again they still might this century. So Britain did not so much as impose order as act a 'damper'/brake to motion/armies.
"Of these, I think the most dangerous for the USA is China. In China's feverish self assertion, they most resemble Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II. That is not a good precedent"
1) Chinese movie actresses are getting double eye folds. They consider it cosmetically appealing.
They are not running away from appearing oriental. They are embracing it and enhancing it.
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-beauty/article/2093921/why-double-eyelid-surgery-rise-asia-rising-incomes-and
2) Chinese movies are patriotic. They remind me of pre-1960s American movies.
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