Europe is in danger. This is what Joe Biden said to the Swedish President when Sweden joined NATO (Reuters)

An article in the New York Times warned that US world leadership is in decline, as it no longer has the means to fulfill its foreign policy promises.

American journalist Christopher Caldwell explained in his article that he based his warning on what was contained in a new book entitled “The Defeat of the West,” by French author Emmanuel Todd, a famous historian and anthropologist.

Todd had previously predicted the collapse of the world order led by the United States, in another book published in 2002 under the title “Post-Empire.”

A feeling of disappointment towards America

Caldwell says that the French author feels increasingly disillusioned with the United States, and has even become hostile to it.

The American journalist seemed to agree with the arguments made by Todd in his two books, as he began his article in the New York Times by quoting suggestive phrases contained in President Joe Biden's State of the Union address that he delivered on Friday morning, in which he criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for his invasion of Ukraine.

In the speech, Biden said, "If anyone in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you he will not."

Biden worried

The US President followed this up by saying - when meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson, whose country is the newest member to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - that "Europe is in danger."

Biden - as the author of the article believes - remains “determined that there will be no need for American soldiers to defend Europe.” Indeed, a White House spokesman went further last week when he stated that it was “absolutely clear” that the use of American ground forces was an issue. Not up for discussion.

According to the article, the possibility that Russia will make further incursions is the strongest argument that Washington relied on to drag NATO into the war, and to attract new members to the Atlantic Alliance.

But if such incursions are a real concern - as Caldwell says - then the use of ground forces would naturally be an option for the United States and its allies.

“The rationale for NATO involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian war is becoming more ambiguous at the same time that one would expect it to be clearer.”

Europeans and Americans are tired of war

According to the article, this has become a problem, because the Europeans - like the Americans - are tired of the war, and their doubts are increasing about Ukraine’s ability to win it.

Perhaps the most important thing is that the Europeans do not trust America, “which did not do much in this war to dispel those doubts about its motives and competence, which emerged during its war on Iraq two decades ago.”

Caldwell returns to talking about the visions of the French author Emmanuel Todd, whom he considers a critic of the United States’ involvement in Ukraine, as he believes that American imperialism “not only endangered the rest of the world, but also undermined the American character.”

One of the manifestations that indicate the decline of the American role in the world is that Russia was able to defy the sanctions and confiscate its assets imposed by Washington in its effort to destroy the Russian economy.

The industrial base of the United States and its European allies is no longer sufficient to provide Ukraine with the equipment - especially artillery - necessary to achieve stability, let alone win the war.

Deeper and long-lasting cultural shifts

Todd asserts that the Americans' "reckless" immersion in the global economy was a mistake, as the United States now manufactures fewer cars than it did in the 1980s, and produces wheat in smaller quantities.

However, according to Cadwell, among the reasons that the French author gives in his latest book are those that involve what he calls “deeper and long-term cultural transformations,” by which he means the aspiration of many individuals in the West to work on managing matters and leading individuals in areas of work, “and they are “They want to become politicians, artists and managers, which does not always require learning intellectually complex things.”

In this regard, he pointed out that the United States is suffering from an internal brain drain, as young people turn away from professions that require high skills to other professions in fields such as law, financial affairs, and others.

Caldwell says that Todd criticized the decline of family values ​​in Anglo-American societies in which the role of the father is less, and which are not compatible with traditional cultures in countries such as India, or even with modern “more patriarchal” cultures such as Russia.

The French author stresses that traditional cultures have much to fear from the West's progressive tendencies, and may resist alliance with countries that adopt those values ​​in their foreign policies.

Todd believes that some Western values ​​are "steeped in negativity."

Source: New York Times