A Message from the Editor

Abstract

A Message from the Editor Gary Kline Arguably, a tectonic shift of sorts is under way globally as a result of actions taken in the name of the United States by the Trump administration. The president seems determined to sweep away the architecture of the Western Alliance that has been so meticulously built over the past seven decades. So far, these actions do not rise to the level of discernible policies or a coherent replacement strategy. Their consequences will nevertheless be profound and enduring; they may affect relations between all of the world’s countries for generations to come. Countries of the Global South will in some ways enter uncharted territory, with all of the potentials and pitfalls implied therein. In the name of “making America great again,” Donald Trump has withdrawn from or repudiated the Paris Climate Accord, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, initiatives the United States originally championed; abrogated the Iran nuclear deal; harshly criticized traditional allies such as Germany, France, Australia, Mexico, Canada, and Great Britain; denigrated the value of the North American Treaty Organization and the Group of Seven; exhorted countries in the European Union to pull out; demeaned non-Western countries using profane pejoratives; and launched an incipient trade war with our closest allies, based on a claim that the European Union and Canada constitute security threats to the United States. Meanwhile, he has lavished praise on (first and foremost) Russia’s Putin, ostensibly taking him at his word that he did not meddle in US elections in 2016, despite the unanimous findings to the contrary of seventeen intelligence agencies in his own government; and Turkey’s Erdogan, the Philippines’ Duterte, North Korea’s Kim, and other “strong leaders.” Under the current administration, the United States has increased military spending and cut funds to the State Department. Bluster and belligerence have supplanted diplomacy. Many career diplomats have left the department and vacancies are being left unfilled. [End Page ix] From such an obvious pattern, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the United States has downgraded its commitment to the core, guiding values of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. Vladimir Putin seems to be reveling in the success of his efforts to undermine the Western alliance and to sow public mistrust and discord abroad, thereby eroding democratic institutions, most especially in the United States. Likewise, the consensus in China seems to be that the United States is withdrawing from its leadership role (drained by intractable quagmires such as Afghanistan and Iraq and government dysfunction and gridlock) and that the West is in steady, ineluctable decline. In their view, they are poised to inherit global leadership in time. The Belt and Road Initiative is a major signifier of this trend. Already, global alliances are frayed and in flux and relations between China, Russia, and the United States and the countries of the Global South, have been transmogrified. For good or ill, change is here, and the countries of the world must find a new path forward in order to construct a more peaceful and just world. The challenges are enormous and the outcome is not inevitable but depends on concrete activities of everyday people working together. Many keen observers have noted that when people feel threatened they tend to band together into familiar groups (based on appeals to ethnicity, nationality, religion, etc.) resulting in a growing “tribalism.” This trend is fracturing countries around the globe. This phenomenon has undoubtedly been exacerbated by the turmoil caused by a dramatic increase in refugees fleeing wars, violence, oppression, and natural disasters—more than sixteen million last year alone and over sixty-five million in total. I would argue that widespread conditions of stark and growing inequality are at the root of most of these problems. Tribalism, then, may be one response to this widespread, destabilized environment. However, other responses are possible and (in my opinion) preferable. Let us remove ourselves momentarily from the particulars of the formidable problems we face and reflect on our common predicament. In the scheme of things, we—Homo sapiens sapiens, who are descendants of the same ancestral mother from East Africa—share space on an...