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Internationale Institutionen sind für die USA immer noch wichtig

Nov 9, 2020 Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

CAMBRIDGE – Donald Trump mag internationale Institutionen verachtet haben, aber seine Präsidentschaft hat die Welt daran erinnert, wie wichtig effektive und widerstandsfähige Institutionen sind. 2016 führte Trump mit dem Argument Wahlkampf, die multilateralen Institutionen nach 1945 hätten zugelassen, dass andere Länder auf Kosten der USA profitieren. Seine populistische Anziehungskraft beruhte natürlich auf weit mehr als nur auf Außenpolitik, doch es gelang Trump, innenpolitische Ressentiments in Zusammenhang mit der Außenpolitik zu bringen, indem er wirtschaftliche Probleme auf „schlechte“ Handelsabkommen mit Ländern wie Mexiko und China schob und auf Einwanderer, die um Arbeitsplätze konkurrieren. Der liberalen internationalen Ordnung nach 1945 wurde die Rolle des Bösewichts zugewiesen.

Wie ich in meinem Buch Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump zeige, waren amerikanische Präsidenten nie perfekte Vertreter des liberalen Institutionalismus. Dwight Eisenhowers Unterstützung für verdeckte Operationen im Iran und in Guatemala war ebenso wenig mit einer strikten Auslegung der UN-Charta vereinbar, wie John F. Kennedys Zustimmung zur vom Geheimdienst CIA geplanten Invasion Kubas. Richard Nixon verstieß 1971 gegen die Regeln der Bretton-Woods-Institutionen und erhob Zölle gegen unsere Verbündeten. Ronald Reagan weigerte sich, ein Urteil des Internationalen Gerichtshofs anzuerkennen, das die Verminung nicaraguanischer Häfen durch seine Regierung für illegal befand. Bill Clinton bombardierte Serbien ohne eine Resolution des Sicherheitsrates.

Nichtsdestotrotz unterstützten amerikanische Präsidenten vor 2016 internationale Institutionen in den meisten Fällen und bemühten sich um ihre Ausweitung, ob mit dem Vertrag über die Nichtverbreitung von Atomwaffen unter Lyndon Johnson, den Rüstungskontrollvereinbarungen unter Nixon, der Klimarahmenkonvention von Rio de Janeiro unter George H.W. Bush, der Welthandelsorganisation und dem Trägertechnologie-Kontrollsystem unter Clinton oder dem Pariser Klimaabkommen unter Barack Obama.

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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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