A Superpower's Hubris

"The Lonely Superpower" by Samuel P. Huntington, in Foreign Affairs (Mar.–Apr. 1999), 58 E. 68th St., New York, N.Y. 10021.

In the immediate aftermath of the Cold the world, unchallenged by any other War, the United States briefly stood astride major power. That "unipolar" moment, highlighted by the Persian Gulf War, has passed—but Washington doesn’t realize it, argues Huntington, the noted Harvard University political scientist.

U.S. officials talk and act as if America rules the world unchallenged, he asserts. "They boast of American power and American virtue," and "lecture other countries on the universal validity of American principles, practices, and institutions." Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, for instance, has called the United States "the indispensable nation" and said that "we stand tall and hence see further than other nations." But the cooperation of other nations is always needed in dealing with major global problems, Huntington writes.

In its misguided effort to exercise benign hegemony over the world, the United States, he says, has used two principal tools: economic sanctions and military intervention. But other nations have grown more reluctant to join in sanctions, costing the United States dearly in dollars when it goes it alone, and in credibility when it fails to enforce the sanctions. As for military action, he says that bombing and cruise missile attacks achieve little, while more serious military intervention would require allied support and a willingness to accept casualties. "Neither the Clinton administration nor Congress nor the public is willing to pay the costs and accept the risks of unilateral global leadership," Huntington writes.

During the Cold War, many countries welcomed the United States as their protector. Today, however, he says, many of them view the United States as a threat— not a military threat but "a menace to their integrity, autonomy, prosperity, and freedom of action."

On issue after issue, from UN dues and sanctions against Libya to global warming and the use of force against Iraq and Yugoslavia, America "has found itself increasingly alone, with one or a few partners, opposing most of the rest of the world’s states and peoples," Huntington says. He quotes an unnamed British diplomat: "One reads about the world’s desire for American leadership only in the United States. Everywhere else one reads about American arrogance and unilateralism."

U.S. leaders should rid themselves of the illusion that the rest of the world naturally shares American interests and values, and cease their arrogant boasts and demands, Huntington contends. Instead, they should use American power to promote U.S. interests in the world, taking advantage of America’s temporary status as sole superpower and employing its resources to win other nations’ help in dealing with global issues.

The U.S. relationship with Europe, in particular, "is central to the success of American foreign policy," the author thinks, "and given the pro-and anti-American outlooks of Britain and France, respectively, America’s relations with Germany are central to its relations with Europe. Healthy cooperation with Europe is the prime antidote for the loneliness of American superpowerdom."