Buffalo News May 26, 2010

I made the editorial page of the Buffalo News this morning:

Cold War thinking is no longer feasible

Charles Krauthammer, a conservative commentator, wrote recently of President Obama’s foreign policy narrative and America’s “retreat by design” in foreign affairs. He considers this to be weak and humiliating to the nation.

On the contrary, I have hoped for several years that the United States would see the wisdom of rolling back empire and foreign involvement in the way that the British successfully managed after World War II: ceding foreign “assets” without losing major clout in the international political arena.

This new world of globalization is admittedly a world that few in American politics really grasp yet. However, one major set of tenets of this new world is that war is increasingly expensive, will slowly bankrupt a nation and will limit or drive out investment and economic growth in a country. Come to think of it, only the United States has really been able to fight any wars in the past decade.

I suggest reading Chalmers Johnson’s article, “Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire” and Thomas L. Friedman’s “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” to further understand the new world context of globalization and see why Bush-era Cold War thinking is no longer feasible, but rather dangerous and unsustainable.

Nicholas J. Weaver

West Seneca