The United States is getting more dangerous—and Canada is enabling it

Today, more than ever before in world history, there is an overwhelming need for global co-operation to deal with environmental catastrophes and economic inequality. Instead, the United States is doing all it can to exacerbate global conflict and division as it becomes more aggressive and destructive in its quest to maintain its global domination. Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has strived to consolidate its global hegemony. In the 1990s, the U.S. stood by as Russia collapsed and took the opportunity to expand NATO to Russia’s borders, despite being consistently warned not to do this. That provocative policy contributed to the war in Ukraine. The U.S. established 750 military bases around the world and enforced neoliberal policies that would enable American capital unlimited access to the world’s resources. The U.S. admitted China to the World Trade Organization expecting this would cause the collapse of the Communist Party and the integration of the Chinese economy into an American-controlled system. The U.S.’s current economic and technological war against China is an effort to correct that failure. In 2003, the Americans illegally invaded Iraq on false pretenses in an effort to reshape the Middle East through violence. The political, economic, and social chaos that followed continues today and has killed nearly a million people. Former Obama aide Benjamin Rhodes has referred to “the Blob”—the closed bubble within which a limited range of foreign policy opinion is allowed in Washington, D.C. Anyone whose views do not fit inside those narrow ideological parameters is excluded, including journalists and academics. There is little appetite for critical self-reflection in Washington, but there is a dangerous inclination towards military and economic violence. The U.S. is a frighteningly militarized state and society. By 2020, it had been at war for all but 15 years of its history. In 2023, the U.S. will spend US$858-billion on its military; meanwhile, American diplomacy is underfunded and neglected. The U.S. has a well-established record of fomenting violence around the world and fabricating “facts” to create opportunities for military intervention. The U.S. sees the world as a “zero-sum game,” but the emergence of other global powers does not need to lead to conflict. America could gracefully accept the emergence of a multipolar world and the reality that permanent global domination is impossible for any state. However, the U.S. wants a world wherein it can abuse its military and financial power and violate international law with impunity. It seems prepared to go to dangerous lengths to maintain these privileges. The U.S.’s provocative actions against China, especially with respect to Taiwan, may lead to much greater conflict. Reflecting its militarism, the U.S. is creating military alliances, such as AUKUS and (perhaps) “the Quad” to contain China. It has also targeted China with NATO. Ironically, the American effort to cripple China is undermining U.S. allies. The American Inflation Reduction Act combines U.S. subsidies with protectionism and threatens to suck advanced industries away from Europe at exactly the time Europe is in an economic crisis caused by the Ukraine war and as American energy companies “war profiteer” off European hardship. Canada is desperate to remain inside the tent of American protectionism. The Canadian Indo-Pacific Strategy establishes Canada as a compliant extension of American power, parroting American propaganda and distortions, in order to ensure Canadian access to the U.S. economy. Yet, as the recent chaos in the U.S. Congress illustrates, that country is politically and socially unstable. The “freedom convoy” that occupied Ottawa in February 2022 was driven by American conspiracy theories and supported by American funding. The greatest dangers to Canada’s stability come from the U.S. (as recently demonstrated in Brazil). Canadian leaders like to speak of Canada and the U.S. “sharing values.” However, America is a plutocracy, not a democracy. U.S. politicians are openly for sale to the highest bidders. Ordinary citizens have almost no influence on policy. When Canada blindly follows U.S. foreign policy, whose interests is Canada upholding? Canada and Europe have benefited enormously from an American-led economic order. As the U.S. tears that order apart to maintain its domination, Europe and Canada seem increasingly trapped by their relationships with the U.S. For American allies, the question must be: how much global disruption and violence are they willing to tolerate—and even participate in—to support American hegemony? The answer may shape the fate of the planet. Shaun Narine is a professor of international relations at St. Thomas University. His primary area of interest is the Asia Pacific region, but he has also published and taught on Canadian foreign policy. The Hill Times