America’s New World - No Values, All Interests - Is Not In America's Interest
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Westphalian system
11 min read
The article contrasts America's shift to a 'Hobbesian worldview' against its previous 'values-based alliances.' Understanding Westphalian sovereignty—the foundational principle of nation-state independence and non-interference that has governed international relations since 1648—provides essential context for evaluating what's being abandoned in favor of raw national interest.
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Marshall Plan
11 min read
The article references the 'entire postwar architecture' being at risk. The Marshall Plan represents the cornerstone of America's values-based approach to Europe—rebuilding allies rather than exploiting them—and understanding it illuminates exactly what strategic doctrine is being reversed.
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Foundations of Geopolitics
16 min read
The article claims the NSS 'reads like an American contribution' to Russia's project of fracturing the EU. This influential 1997 Russian text by Aleksandr Dugin explicitly outlines strategies for weakening Western alliances through nationalist movements—providing documented context for the comparison being drawn.
Today on Critical Conditions, Claire and I ranged from London’s uneasy holiday cheer to the shockwaves of America’s new National Security Strategy to the political fiasco in Israel.
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DLondon, where I’ve lived and which I am visiting, looks glorious in the Christmas glow, but beneath the lights the mood, as I said earlier in the week, is frayed. Brexit’s damage lingers everywhere. The Labour government isn’t helping. It is hammering the professional classes while bungling a parade of almost slapstick corruption scandals. Crackdowns on non-doms are driving wealth creators out, and the already fragile sense of stability has eroded further.
The big story this week, though, is the US National Security Strategy, which I gave a talk about here. The document strips away America’s long-standing commitment to values-based alliances and replaces it with a Hobbesian worldview in which every nation competes for raw advantage. It abandons not just America’s democratic ideals but America’s interests. As Claire put it, this is America’s new world: no values, all interests — and it’s not in anyone’s interest.
I’ve written easlier this week that the shift is most jarring in the abandonment of Europe. The unhinged NSS’s section on it accuses European nations of “civilizational decline,” of allowing themselves to become “non-majority European,” and of suppressing free speech through tech regulation. It’s the usual far-right fantasy: demographic panic layered over culture-war hallucinations. The “non-majority European” claim is mathematically false; Muslims are about 6 percent of the EU. American political obsessions are being projected onto a continent with its own dynamics — a longstanding blind spot in US analysis, Claire noted.
The irony is that Europe is the only force capable of reining in social media’s algorithmic toxicity. The EU just hit Musk with a major fine for transparency violations. Musk responded by calling for the EU’s abolition. Days later, the NSS materialized with language accusing Europe of crazy tech regulation. You don’t need to be paranoid to connect the dots.
Trump is, sadly, aligned most with Putin. Russia’s national security strategy has long sought to fracture the EU by empowering nationalist parties around Europe. The NSS reads like an American contribution to that project. Russia wants Europe ...
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