Time for a New “De-Americanized” World Order?

by bisonmessink

It seems like only yesterday there was hand wringing in Washington about America’s diminished credibility in the world if the United States failed to inject itself into the Syrian civil war.  Today, the international credibility of the United States has taken a far bigger plunge, after U.S. lawmakers pushed the world economy to the brink of collapse, just to prove a point about American domestic policy.

Many in the world are taking note of an editorial this week from the Chinese news agency Xinhua blasted the United States and called for a new “de-Americanized” world order.

Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas, instigating regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies…

Most recently, the cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations’ tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized.

Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated, and a new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing.

While America is fixated on the military threats to its world supremacy, what’s left of the Axis of Evil — North Korea and Iran — emerging economic powers China, India, Russia and Brazil are poised to become dominant global players, without or without America’s cooperation. The stability and surety of United States debt has long been America’s biggest economic advantage, and one that U.S. policy makers seem all too willing to give away.

A piggyback editorial in the Asia Times warns that China’s move to the top has already begun:

The time to capitalize has now arrived. By 2009, after the Wall Street-provoked financial crisis, there were already Chinese rumblings about the “malfunctioning of the Western model” and ultimately the “malfunctioning of Western culture”.

Beijing has listened to Dylan (with Mandarin subtitles?) and concluded yes, the times they-are-a-changing. With no foreseeable social, economic and political progress – the shutdown is just another graphic illustration, if any was needed – the US slide is as inexorable as China, bit by bit, spreading its wings to master 21st century post-modernity.

It will take far more, of course, than a couple threatening editorials to unseat the United States as the world’s top economy. It will take something like the United States defaulting on its debt, or even becoming involved in another costly and unnecessary war — thin ice that Washington is far too eager to tread upon.