The Greatest Threat to US Power - Week 15 Post Class Post

This week’s class discussion about the greatest threat to US power was fun and interesting. All four groups did a great job identifying real threats and reason why the threats they chose would be indeed the greatest to US power. However, I think that both the breakdown of the liberal order and climate change are the greatest threats to US power.

The liberal order has brought peace and stability to the post-WW II world as well as prosperity. As the group has mentioned in their opening statement, a collapse of the liberal order would cause immense damage to the US economy as well as its diplomatic power. The US cannot afford a breakdown of the liberal order because it needs the cooperation of other states in order to tackle global issues like climate change, infectious diseases, terrorism, and transnational organized crime (Joseph S Nye 2016). Unfortunately, President-elect Trump questions this order and wants to remove international agreements, including free trade agreements like NAFTA, TPP, and TTIP, for example.

Climate change is very often ignored, trivialized or even ridiculed, including by the incoming administration. Not only has Donald Trump publicly played it down by saying that a focus on climate change as a bigger threat to US power than ISIS is the dumbest thing ever said, but also other members of the republican party like Senator Ted Cruz even ridicule the idea of climate change as a bigger threat by saying “that driving an SUV is a bigger threat than the Islamic state” (Keith Johnson 2016). This is really scary because it sounds like the incoming administration is going to put climate change on the backburner again. However, as the climate change group stressed in their opening statement and rebuttal, the US cannot afford to put climate change on the backburner.

The breakdown of the liberal order and climate change both pose the greatest threats to US power. However, the breakdown of the liberal order poses a greater threat in the short run. Climate change, on the other hand, poses a greater threat in the long run if the incoming administration is not willing to accept climate change as an existential threat to the US and the whole world, and is not willing to address it.

I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Good luck with the degree!

References

Johnson, Keith. 2016. “Obama Says Climate Change is a Security Risk. Why Are Republicans Laughing?” Foreign Policy March 21, 2016. Accessed December 15, 2016. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/21/obama-says-climate-change-is-a-security-risk-why-are-republicans-laughing/

Nye, Joseph S, Jr. 2016. “Will the Liberal Order Survive?” Foreign Affairs. Accessed December 15, 2016. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-12-12/will-liberal-order-survive