Power And Peril

Growing unilateralism in the conduct of US foreign policy has never been as sharply in evidence as in the ultimatum issued by President George Bush to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to leave his country or face imminent military attack.
A nation that has always prided itself as the custodian of democratic values is now displaying many of the less appealing characteristics of a 19th century imperial power. America’s pre-eminence in today’s uni-polar world has emboldened it to demonstrate its hyper-power status in conflict after conflict since Gulf War-I in 1991—the campaign against Serbia in Kosovo in 1999, against Afghanistan in 2001 and now Iraq.
While George Bush Sr managed to forge a remarkable coalition of allies under the UN umbrella in Gulf War-I, the US has since tended to give short shrift to international norms in the name of advancing democracy. Under the current administration, this trend towards unilateralism has become markedly pronounced. Soon after assuming office, President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, refused to submit to the authority of the International Criminal Court and increased duties on imported steel in apparent violation of WTO rules.
In the field of arms control, Washington has pressed ahead with the development of the National Missile Defense system by abrogating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia and pulled out of international discussions aimed at effectively monitoring the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.
Given current political realities, a unilateralist foreign policy approach may not prove too costly for the US in the short run. But in the long term, the arrogance of power, which has already begun to undermine the effectiveness of multilateral institutions, will erode US credibility. This in turn will stoke anti-American sentiment, already widespread in several parts of the world, and encourage the very forces of extremism which the Bush administration valiantly seeks to counter.
Aggressive unilateralism could also place the US at risk of over-extending itself on the international stage. On the matter of Iraq, the US undoubtedly has more than the requisite military power to pull down the Saddam Hussein regime. However, in a post-war scenario, Washington will have to wrestle with the bitter ethnic and sectarian divisions in Iraq, not to mention the differing politicostrategic objectives of its neighbours. President Bush may thus end up winning the war but losing the peace.