America has been the most benign great power the world has known and has probably done more good than any other great power.
Europe should multilateralise America. Many of America’s recent woes have come from its unilateral instincts. Germany wisely counselled America against going to war in Iraq in 2003. America ignored Germany’s advice and paid a heavy price; losing $3 trillion and destroying a country in the process. Similarly, Europe advised America to join the Kyoto protocol, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the International Criminal Court. In all these cases (and similar cases) America categorically refused.
One point is worth emphasizing here to avoid any misunderstanding. America has been the most benign great power the world has known and has probably done more good than any other great power. But it has also done harm both to itself and to the world from time to time. Europe can save it from greater harm by making a simple and obvious point. When America was the undisputed sole superpower of the world, it may have been in America’s national interest to keep multilateral organizations weak. However, when America goes from being number one in the world towards inevitably becoming number two in the world, its national interest will change.
Bill Clinton once wisely said to his fellow Americans, “If you believe that maintaining power and control and absolute freedom of movement and sovereignty is important to your country’s future, there’s nothing inconsistent in [the US continuing to behave unilaterally]. But if you believe that we should be trying to create a world with rules and partnerships and habits of behaviour that we would like to live in when we’re no longer the military political economic superpower in the world, then you wouldn’t do that. It just depends on what you believe.”
When America becomes the number two power in the world, its new national interest will be to strengthen multilateral initiatives and international law so that they will constrain the next number one power in the world, namely China. Indeed, I have told my American friends time and again that every loophole in international law that America creates today is a loophole that China can walk through tomorrow. Surely the time to close those loopholes is now.
The one continent in the world with the deepest experience of multilateral processes and institutions is Europe. This is part of the secret DNA of Europe. Sadly, many American intellectuals, especially the neoconservatives, have poured scorn on multilateralism.
If Europe could educate America on the virtues of multilateralism and explain how it has brought both peace and prosperity to Europe, it could save America from itself. Germans are right to be grateful to America for having been a benign occupying power. Now they can reciprocate America’s generosity by giving America the advice it needs but which few friends have the courage or moral standing to give. Germany has both.
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