Foreign Policy Magazine - ''What Ails America?'' An FP Special Report (November 2011)

100 Pages·2011·17.15 MB·English

by  Foreign Policy Magazine

WHAT AILS
AN FP SPECIAL REPORT
AMERICA?
IAN BURUMA, THOMAS FRIEDMAN,
MICHAEL MANDELBAUM & STEPHEN WALT
WEIGH IN
HILLARY CLINTON
OUR PACIFIC CENTURY
JAMES TRAUB
THE ELEPHANTS IN THE
2012 ROOM
NOVEMBER 2011 ForeignPolicy.com

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
S
ixteen years ago, when another secretary of state sat down to write for Foreign Policy, the
world looked like a starkly different place to a top American offi cial—a post-Cold War mix of op-
portunities and threats, bound together not so much by anything except the promise of American
leadership. Indeed, said Warren Christopher, “The simple fact is that if we do not lead, no one else
will.” It was an age—and one that now seems quaintly outdated—of America the indispensable na-
tion. Fast-forward to today, and the struggle by the United States to assert its continued leadership in the
world—or even its commitment to remaining there.
In her exclusive piece for this issue of Foreign Policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton does her best
to convince us that America is not retreating from the world. Or at least that it should not. “Beyond
our borders,” she writes, many are now questioning “America’s intentions—our willingness to remain
engaged and to lead. In Asia, they ask whether we are really there to stay,
whether we are likely to be distracted again by events elsewhere, whether we
can make—and keep—credible economic and strategic commitments, and
whether we can back those commitments with action.” Clinton’s answer is
a resounding yes, but the questions themselves are revealing, extraordinary
even, coming from a sitting secretary of state, and the context is clear: These
are angst-ridden times to be an unabashed advocate of America’s role in
the world, when everyone from Tea Partiers at home to fi nancial markets
abroad is wondering about the staying power of this humbled superpower.
The rest of fp’s special section on America at this time of troubles is dedi-
cated to diagnosing what ails the country. We started by asking that question
to a standout collection of foreign writers and thinkers, from Chinese mar-
ket guru Fan Gang to Canadian environmental scientist Vaclav Smil and Dutch
writer Ian Buruma. Their provocative and pointed contributions, starting on
page 64, remind us what an uncomfortable position this is for a United
States that is more used to sitting in judgment on other countries than receiving the world’s criticism. A
rousing debate follows, pitting fp’s in-house provocateur, Harvard University professor/blogger Steve
Walt, versus New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and his book-writing partner Michael Mandel-
baum, on the question of whether America is really all that exceptional. And fp contributing editor James
Traub, a weekly columnist on our website as well as a regular New York Times Magazine author, weighs
in with a thoughtful and engaging look at a troubling phenomenon: the insistence by pretty much the
entire fi eld of 2012 Republican presidential candidates on running away from the world rather than tell-
ing us what they think about it. His piece, “The Elephants in the Room,” starting on page 79, is an early
must-read from a campaign off to a depressing start.
These may be tough times for an America beset by debt and self-doubt, but of course it’s still an ex-
traordinary island of privilege too—as we’re reminded by some of the other powerful pieces in this issue.
In fp’s In Box section, Cuban dissident Yoani Sánchez takes us inside the remnants of Castro’s daddy
state, now that Papá Fidel is just the patient-in-chief, while “Think Again: Nuclear Power,” by Charles
Ferguson, head of the Federation of American Scientists, offers a sobering look at the fallout from Japan’s
Fukushima nuclear disaster. Finally, there’s a unique close to this edition of the magazine—our fi rst-ever
visual In Other Words, dedicated to making sense of the revolutionary graffi ti of this year of global up-
heaval. From the crude racism in portrayals of doomed Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi to New
York-style scrawl on a Palestinian wall, these are images you just can’t stop looking at.
—Susan Glasser
November 2011 3
CONTENTS
November 2011
AN FP SPECIAL SECTION
THE AMERICA ISSUE
56 America’s 71 An FP Debate: Just How
Pacifi c Century Special Is America Anyway?
The future of geopolitics will be American exceptionalism is a myth.
decided in Asia, not Afghanistan By Stephen M. Walt
or Iraq, and the United States We really were that great (but that doesn’t
should be right at the center of mean we are now). By Thomas L. Friedman and
the action. By Hillary Clinton Michael Mandelbaum
79 The Elephants in the Room
Barack Obama’s Republican challengers are trying hard not
to talk about the rest of the world. It shows. By James Traub
plus: The fp Survey: Is there a gop foreign policy?
DEPARTMENTS The Optimist: Haiti Doesn’t 86 IN OTHER WORDS:
Need Your Old T-Shirt By
12 LETTERS GRAFFITI EDITION
Charles Kenny ■ “Responsibil-
The Numbers Game ■ Love ity to Protect”: A short history A special photo essay, with
and Robots ■ Sea Change ■ By Charles Homans ■ Letter captions by Roger Gastman.
Duchy of Hazard ■ The Jihad from Havana: Country for Old ■ Revolution in a Can: Graffi ti
Defi cit Men By Yoani Sánchez is as American as apple pie,
but much easier to export.
23 IN BOX
49 THINK AGAIN: By Blake Gopnik
The List: Checkbook Diplomacy ■ Confl ict Graffi ti: The art of
NUCLEAR POWER
By Peter Van Buren ■ The war. By Paul Salopek
Things They Carried: The Af- Japan melted down, but
ghan Policewoman ■ Ideas By that doesn’t mean the end
Joshua E. Keating ■ Epipha- of the atomic age. COVER AND THIS SPREAD:
nies from Nandan Nilekani ■ By Charles D. Ferguson Photo illustrations by Matt Dorfman for FP

4 Foreign Policy
64 WHAT AILS AMERICA?
We went around the world to ask about the
problems of the one global superpower.
Imperial Hubris By Ian Buruma ■ The Presidency By Sunil
Gluttony The Fed
Khilnani ■ By Vaclav Smil ■ By Heleen Mees
The Dollar Education
■ By Fan Gang ■ By Mishaal Al Gergawi
96 America at Dusk
fp
asked a distinguished international panel
to tell us what the United States is doing wrong.
We got an earful.
November 2011 5
FOREIGNPOLICY.com
Decline Watch
ARE WE DOOMED?
Roubini
B
ack in fp’s January/February issue, Gideon Rachman’s cover story
Is this the second coming of the global eco-
“Think Again: American Decline: This Time It’s for Real” captured the
nomic meltdown? Nouriel Roubini, perhaps
national mood, with Americans increasingly looking over their shoulders
better known as “Dr. Doom” for having
at a rising China. Nearly a year later, this fretting has turned into an obses-
predicted the 2007-2008 fi nancial crisis,
sion. ForeignPolicy.com is charting the scaremongers and soothsayers of the and Ian Bremmer, head of the Eurasia Group
American Apocalypse in real time, grading the claims and prognostications. political-risk analysis fi rm and moderator of
The Call blog on ForeignPolicy.com, took sides
in a spirited debate over the grim news:
NR: At this point there is serious risk of a
double-dip recession in the U.S. and most
3
2 other advanced economies.
BEING STAAYN CDALM 4
A SUPER- CARRY ON. DECLINE, IB: I don’t think the severity or the shock is
WPAOSW NEIRCE WSCEH’RMEE GCOLINNNEA. anywhere near as great. We’re not talking
WHILE BE JUST FINE. about the sudden implosion of the world’s
1 IT LASTED.
fi nancial markets. But I think the fi nancial
WE’RE
TOTALLY 5 ability to respond isn’t there.
SCREWED.
(START USA! NR: The fundamental problem is not the
LEARNING
MANDARIN.) USA! individuals. It’s that in most advanced econo-
mies, they have weak governments. In the
U.S., we have divided government.
IB: The biggest danger is …
2 Advantage: World 3 Dumb and Dumber the Chinese are kicking a
Eliot Spitzer fondly U.S. college acceptance bigger can farther down the
recalls when the United States used to test scores are slipping, but do lower SAT road than anyone else.
dominate men’s tennis. What if Novak reading scores actually mean that things
Djokovic’s ascendancy really does fore- are so bad Americans can’t even speak
tell a coming Serbian superpower? their own language anymore?
Bremmer GES
A
M
MEMORABLE TWEETS GETTY I
FROM THE FP TWITTERATI 100 AFP/
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6Foreign Policy

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8Foreign Policy