Today it is argued that there are
global problems such as war, terrorism, climate change, world hunger, inequalities of
condition, diseases such as HIV/AIDS and human rights violations that are beyond the
capacity of nation-states to ‘solve’. Therefore, some form of transnational
political authority above and beyond nation-states (including democratic ones) is
required to address these problems. This is proposed as a desirable alternative to
American global leadership.
Alternatives to America
The United Nations
When considering the alternatives to American global leadership, the United
Nations is often offered as a desirable alternative. Inevitably, however, the UN embodies
the flaws of the nations that make it up.
China
When considering the alternatives to American global leadership, China has
emerged as the most likely power to supplant the United States in the Asia Pacific
region. But Chinese policies consistently suggest a “Pax Sinica” will
countenance (and nurture) authoritarian regimes and neglect human rights and humanitarian
aid; ignore proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; support state sponsors of
terror; undermine global free trade principles; promote a state-mercantilist
“Beijing consensus” agenda, ignore environmental despoliation and damage to
biodiversity; and demand that Europe, the United States and Japan bear the full weight of
Climate Change sacrifices.
The European Union
It is not enough for critics of the United States to say that it is an imperfect world leader. They must also suggest how the world might be better led. Another briefing examines the United Nations as an alternative to US leadership. There is a hope in the European Union that the EU could solve problems in a better, more constructive and less militaristic way than the USA. This briefing examines the EU and some of its protagonists’ desire for it to be ‘the alternative superpower’. The guiding text for this ambition is Mark Leonard’s ‘Why Europe will run the Twenty First Century’. Where the US projects its force through military hard power, the argument goes, the EU uses trade accords and international law, gradually drawing other nations into a peaceful nexus of collaboration – so called “soft power”.
