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国际机构仍然对美国十分重要

Nov 9, 2020 Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

剑桥—唐纳德·特朗普或许曾鄙视国际机构，但他的总统任期却提醒世界适应性强和高效的国际机构有多重要。在2016年大选期间，特朗普竞选团队提出了这样的观点，即后1945年多边机构以让美国付出代价为条件而让他国受益。当然，特朗普的民粹主义呼声远不止限于外交政策领域，但特朗普通过将经济问题归咎于与墨西哥和中国等国签署的“糟糕”贸易协议以及移民争夺工作岗位而成功地将国内不满与外交政策联系在一起。后1945年自由国际秩序被视为一种罪犯。

正如我在我的著作道德是否重要？从富兰克林·罗斯福到特朗普等历任总统及其信奉的外交政策中所指出的那样，美国总统从来都不是无懈可击的机构自由主义者。德怀特·艾森豪威尔支持对伊朗和危地马拉的秘密行动、约翰·F·肯尼迪在古巴的所作所为，都是与对联合国宪章的严格解读相抵触的。理查德·尼克松违反了布雷顿森林经济体系规则，并于1971年对我们的盟友采取了征收关税的举措。罗纳德·里根则无视国际法院的一项裁定，该裁决认为其政府开采尼加拉瓜港口为非法。而比尔·克林顿则在没有安理会决议的情况下轰炸了塞尔维亚。

即便如此，2016年前，无论是林登·约翰逊签署的核不扩散条约，抑或是尼克松所签署的军备控制协定，再或者是老布什所签署的里约热内卢气候变化协议；以及克林顿所领导的世贸组织和导弹技术管制制度；又或者是巴拉克·奥巴马签署的巴黎气候协定，美国总统在绝大多数情况下依然支持国际机构并寻求其力量的壮大。

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j. von Hettlingen Nov 11, 2020

According to Joseph S. Nye, Jr. we live in a “century of transnational interdependence.” In our interconnected world, “isolation is not an option, and nationalism versus globalization is a false choice.” A pandemic or a “carbon atom” does not respect borders and politics. The right approach is “to combine a strong national identity and global concern.” Close cooperation between countries to combat many global challenges is essential, because these threats cannot be solved on national level by one country alone.
The author quotes the historian and philosopher, Yuval Harari, who in an interview in May, 2019 said that nuclear war, climate change, and tecnological disruption are the “three common problems” humankind faces, because they “make a mockery of all national borders,” and that they “can be solved only through global cooperation.” Harari insisted artificial intelligence poses as great a threat to humankind as climate change and nuclear war and a technology race in genetics could threaten the whole of humanity.
Since Trump took office, he has been shredding institutions at home and abroad, making good on his 2016 campaign promises. He believed “the post-1945 multilateral institutions had let other countries benefit at American expense. His populist appeal rested on far more than foreign policy,” because he “successfully linked domestic resentments to foreign policy by blaming economic problems on ‘bad’ trade deals with countries like Mexico and China and on immigrants competing for jobs. The post-1945 liberal international order was cast as a villain.”
Tracking presidents and foreign policy from FDR to Trump, the author comes to the conclusion that “American presidents in most instances supported international institutions and sought their extension, whether it was the Non-Proliferation Treaty under Lyndon Johnson; arms control agreements under Nixon; the Rio de Janeiro agreement on climate change under George H.W. Bush; the World Trade Organization and the Missile Technology Control Regime under Clinton; or the Paris climate agreement under Barack Obama.”
Echoing Trump’s utter disdain of multilateral institutions, his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo questioned the values of the UN and the EU in a speech in December 2018. He claimed that since the end of the Cold War in 1990, the international order “has failed” the US, and “multilateralism has become viewed as an end unto itself. The more treaties we sign, the safer we supposedly are. The more bureaucrats we have, the better the job gets done.” Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, as a result of his “narrow transactional approach” to institutions.
As Trump is not educated in political science and surrounds himself with incompetent people, they have failed to understand the significant role multilateral institutions play. They are needed to solve increasingly complex collective action problems. They co-ordinate the actions of individual states, and together they help create global public goods such as public health, particularly contagious disease control; global peace and security; concerted management of the global natural commons to promote their sustainable use and to protect the environment etc.
Institutions “can sometimes lose their value and become illegitimate,” because they have been rendered obsolete in the absence of innovation and reform. Trump has disparaged the World Trade Organization. In his view the WTO is outdated, sclerotic, and generally bad for America. “By renegotiating various trade agreements in a manner that damaged the WTO and US alliances, the Trump administration showed that the US, as the world’s most powerful country, can break these threads and maximize its short-term bargaining power.”
The author urges the US to build “a network of multilayered partnerships with others.” He says America can rely on its “hard military and economic power but also…its soft power of attraction, based on an open and inclusive culture, liberal democratic values, and policies that are widely perceived as legitimate.” It does not hurt to have a Jeffersonian “decent respect for the opinions of [human]kind” and the “use of institutions that encourage reciprocity, which will be “crucial to the success of US foreign policy.”
To cite Henry Kissinger, “the world order depends on the ability of a leading state to combine power and legitimacy. Institutions are indispensable to that end.” In the face of “a more complex world, the US must cooperate with others, and use its soft power to attract their cooperation. America will need to exercise power with as well as power over others. The success of Joe Biden’s foreign policy will depend on how quickly we can relearn these institutional lessons.”
Biden plans to re-engage with traditional allies and has assembled an experienced team of foreign policy advisers. There are plenty of highly qualified and seasoned diplomats who left the administration after Trump gutted the State Department, leaving many overseas posts unfilled.
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Michael Public Nov 9, 2020

But China.
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