A Dangerous Interregnum

The 9/11 attacks, followed by long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have left the United States exhausted, which has transformed its approach to the globe. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen cites political theorist Antonio Gramsci who suggested that transitions, during which old ways resist new approaches, can magnify crisis. The United States, and other nations, too, have taken an “inward turn,” and adopted a cannot-do attitude on challenges at home and abroad. Compounding the troubles is “a feeling that something is skewed in an economy where for many the relationship between hard work and reward seems lost,” he writes. Hard pragmatism has replaced visionary idealism. Political leaders find it easier to point out obstacles rather than risk devising solutions. One possible break from the troubling pattern, Cohen suggests, would be peaceful resolution to the US-Iranian nuclear standoff: “it would be the most powerful signal in a long time of an American willingness to rethink its global strategy in the most volatile area of the world.” – YaleGlobal