Powerless Superpower

In the stream of revelations about the USA’s foreign politics, the absence of real scandal is marked. The USA’s many detractors should be disappointed.

The release of incredible amounts of more or less sensitive diplomatic correspondence into the public domain via WikiLeaks is a serious setback for American foreign politics. It barely needs to be said that the leaks are extremely awkward for the American administration.

But there isn’t much in the content for America to be ashamed about.

Everybody who considers America as “the Great Satan,” the greatest obstacle to global détente and eternal peace, should feel deep frustration. Was the American laundry no more soiled than that?

The disappointment is presumably shared by all those who imagine that the USA’s foreign politics is more or less controlled by a powerful Israeli lobby. The attempts to persuade, in turn, President George W. Bush and thereafter, Barack Obama to destroy Iranian nuclear installations by military means were in vain.

The equally eager Arabic lobby, led by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, was just as ineffective when it urged the USA to “cut the head off the snake” of Iran before it was too late.

The lack of truly compromising information perhaps explains why so much attention has been given to gossip; piquant details about how various top politicians are “derided,” as it is called in the daily papers’ prose, by American diplomats in their letters home. Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is described as “irresponsible, vain and ineffective.” Russia’s Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev are likened to Batman and Robin. The dependence of Libyan ruler Gaddafi on a busty, blonde Ukrainian nurse is duly noted.

Through the years, the USA has collected a little dirt on its conscience; but here at least, there are no revelations about shady plans to overthrow elected governments, no conspiracies against other countries.

The reality, as it appears from the diplomatic pouch, turns out to be light years away from all the feverish notions of a power-drunk empire which, with the world’s mightiest war machine behind it, forces other nations to obedience and subjugation.

Rather, America is shown to be conspicuously powerless, obviously incapable of enforcing its own will.

The diplomatic correspondence often breathes resignation, whether it concerns the rampant corruption in the Afghan government or that a previously reliable ally like Turkey is on increasingly friendly terms with Iran.

The USA remains the world’s most influential nation and guarantor for a tolerably stable world order. However, it is an existence characterized more by impotence than authoritarianism.