Mark Leonard Quotes
As the two biggest global powers indulge their neuroses, the rest of the world is getting anxious.
China & the U. S.
Mark Leonard, Co-Founder & Director, European Council on Foreign Relations, Fellow, Transatlantic Academy, “Why Convergence Breeds Conflict”, Foreign Affairs, September – October 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
After the economic & power collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the only remaining superpower. Givern Russia's diminshed capability and many Americans still carrying resentments about the Cold War, America's foreign policy and diplomacy did not treat Russia as if they were a very important power in the world. Puten greatly resented the fact that Russia was no longer considered or treated like a world power, Russia had a nuclear arsenal and a total delivery system what was in the same destructive potential class as the United States. There were many Russiabs who had similar resentments and Putin sert out to adopt policieis and practices that would force the United States and the other nations to consider them with more dignity, respect and consdideration. This was a typical statement of the period when he was "stoking the fires of Russian resentment.
He was not attributing this to any particular polices or the United States. The U. S. had the so large and was such a force on so many areas that most things the U. S. did would potentially affect every oither nation in the world. There was almost no situation in the world in which the U, S, position and extent of invlovement would not affect the countires involved. At the same time the rapidly accelerating technological change that is changine everything is being led by United States scientists, technologists, and corporations. So if technological change was destabilizing which it was in most societies including America's the United States was the driver. And then, the Presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who had a a stated practice being inconsistant on many things, of aggressivly looking for new ways of doing things in American politics (and had been an exemplar during the campaign), and a strong reluctance to have broad general policies that woild guide his policies and intentions. American politics was changing more than usual with both major political parties were going through major reinvntions and struggles to define themselves. The United States was, moreso than any other country, culturally used to rapid change througout the society and still thriving. But for most other cultures, these things all together could determine the perception of stability and the lac k thereof in most of the world. But even the methods of dealing with climate change which is a source of anxiety for most nations, realsitically depends on what the United States will do or not do and that lack of certainty or even liklihood to prediuct affects people the world over.
It was interesting that Reagan as a political presidential Republican candidate would criticize the foreign policy of the previous Republican Party. However the policy was created by President Richard Nixon who had but a small reservoir of support after Watergate.
Journalist. Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think tank.
