Structural Realism: America's Grand Strategy for 2025 (Essay Sample)

Structural Realism: America's Grand Strategy for 2025 Name Course number Professor Date of Submission Structural Realism: America's Grand Strategy for 2025. * INTRODUCTION That the United States is facing a rapidly transitioning world is not a secret. China is experiencing rapid growth both politically and economically. The Belt and Road Project has become a great success with 44 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa, 34 in Europe & Central Asia, and 25 in East Asia & Pacific having joined the project by December 2023. The project has important implications for the world order as it contributes significantly to economic development, especially by connecting the countries to China through maritime networks as well as by road. China's consolidation of economic and political power continues to pose a threat to the United States and has already incited the need for urgent economic and political containment of China as observed in the concerns of General Mike Minihan of Air Mobility Command's provocative memo that hinted at the prospects of China's aggression against the united states in 2025. India has also emerged to become an important player in international politics with the most recent Forbes India estimates suggesting that it ranks 12th in the list of the most powerful countries in 2024. This is not to mention the disruption of world peace with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine which has no doubt implicated important facets of the USA's influence in the region and even delayed the USA's plan to strengthen its alliance with the Middle East by renegotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. At the same time, the Gaza conflict has triggered an unending political turmoil in a region that has remained a hotbed of violence for the past decades and in turn affected the USA’s cooperation with its strongest ally in the region, Israel. Significant advancement in technology has also placed groups and organizations in positions of greater growth and countries have capitalized on emerging technologies to secure their interests and grow their influence on global politics. What now emerges from these dynamics is a sensitive situation that threatens the influence and domination the United States has enjoyed for the past few decades as the sole superpower.[Christoph Nedopil Wang, “Countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),” Green Finance & Development Center, 2023, https://greenfdc.org/countries-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative-bri/#:~:text=The%20countries%20(excluding%20Palestine)%20of.] [Greg Hadley, “Read for Yourself: The Full Memo from AMC Gen. Mike Minihan,” Air & Space Forces Magazine, January 30, 2023, https://www.airandspaceforces.com/read-full-memo-from-amc-gen-mike-minihan/.] [Forbes India, “Top 10 Most Powerful Countries in the World in 2023,” Forbes India, May 2, 2024, https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/top-10-powerful-countries-in-the-world/87201/1#:~:text=China%20ranks%20second%20among%20the.] [Nikolay Bobkin, “Impact of the Ukrainian Conflict on US Relations with Countries in the Middle East,” Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences 92, no. S15 (December 1, 2022): S1397 https://doi.org/10.1134/s1019331622210055.] As we edge towards the next general election in 2024, the next administration must institute a new grand strategy that would secure the position of the United States and steer the country to a position of greater political and economic power. In light of the changes in the international order as earlier described, what is apparent is that whatever the outcome of the next presidential election, the next president will have, like his predecessors, secured the opportunity to capitalize on the influence the United States currently holds to shape the world order in a way that places the country and the world at large at a position marked with high prospects of world peace as well as prosperity. Presumably, the next president is also well aware of his responsibility to steer the country to a position of great vitality and replenished power in order to ensure the highest ideals of prosperity and growth. All this, unfortunately, must be accomplished in a situation that is sharply different from his predecessors because of the limited resources available at the disposal of the country and the highly fragmented political spaces not only in the country but also beyond. These responsibilities and expectations confront the next president with three important questions. Firstly, what kind of world pattern is the country falling into in the 21st century? Specifically, what role does the USA play in this pattern? Also importantly, what are the implications of the current world pattern on the identity of the United States? Secondly, how do popular international relations paradigms factor in the present situation? Lastly, where does the neoliberal foreign policy order we have pursued since the 80s place us in light of the current situation? Is it effective in accommodating these challenges or does it invite strategic reforms in this regard? Most importantly, what positional advantages does the foreign policy afford the United States if pursued in containing Russia? * THE WORLD PATTERN AS WE STAND AND THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES The 21st century is an important period for the United States because it is marked with important implications on complacency to US action by other powers as well as a notable hesitancy among other states to demonstrate the consensus that has so far acted as a permit for the USA's action beyond its borders. Before the turn of the century and especially during the post-cold War period, there was a notable inclination among major powers such as Russia as well as Western allies to bandwagon with the United States in decisions that implicated the world order. This is observed to be particularly salient after the Cold War had ended and most of the major powers had somewhat decided to pursue a multipolar political profile. Particularly, the former members of the Soviet Union had transitioned to democracies and commendable efforts could also be observed in Latin America and other parts of Africa NOTEREF _Ref165890285 \f \h 5. Even though China was hesitant to pursue the same path, it was expected that further economic growth would necessitate the need for democracy. What now emerged from these changes in the international world order is a high degree of ideological convergence where most countries are now adopting a democratic policy just like the USA.[Chris Brown, “The Emerging Shape of 21st Century International Politics Book Section Understanding International Relations, Chapter 12,” 2009. pg.295-298 https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/31250/1/Understanding_IR_chapter_12_%28LSERO_version%29.pdf.] The alignment in ideology between these states stood to set the pace for complacency in the years to come and even permitted some historic actions. For example, when tyrannical leaders such as Saddam Hussein and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic were confronted with American aggression, interestingly, strong powers such as Russia did not respond by committing to a strategy that would balance the American power. Although the motivation for this neutrality is still contested in the literature, most debates tend to agree that these powers did not feel threatened by the USA during the period and that ideological convergence stood to set the pace for harmony between the United States and other powers even in these politically-sensitive events. In the present scheme of matters, however, a keen look may reveal an increasing degree of ideological divergence and decreasing complacency with the US among important players in international politics. The preference for antidemocratic policy especially in the Middle East and the increasing attraction to Peronist policies in regions such as Latin America has also weakened the complacency of some states to American principles. Other states such as Russia have pursued an authoritarian policy that differs sharply from the ideals of neoliberalism and the capitalization of markets as advocated for by the US. Studies also agree that the prospects of China transforming to a less autocratic regime in light of economic growth continue to wane with time NOTEREF _Ref165890285 \f \h 5. Limited ideological divergence, in turn, has worked to diminish US power and encouraged dissent by authoritarian and non-authoritarian regimes alike. Notable examples that may help contextualize the context of the problem include the almost unanimous opposition of the Iraq War and War on Terror in Afghanistan by members of Latin America, India's dissent against the Kosovo Intervention, and the joint efforts by Germany and France to contest the USA's pledge for support from the UN before the Iraq war.[J. Luis Rodriguez, “Explaining Latin America’s Contradictory Reactions to the War in Ukraine,” War on the Rocks, April 27, 2022, https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/explaining-latin-americas-contradictory-reactions-to-the-war-in-ukraine/.] Even in light of the decreasing complacency with the United States by multiple powers across the world, the next president is bound by duty to champion the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The country operates under the conviction that human rights and fundamental freedoms act in the best interest of the world at large by working to strengthen security, international peace, and prosperity. Notably, with the encroachment of autocracy and totalitarianism by China and Russia, these ideals stand to be implicated. What's more, under the Truman Doctrine, whose relevance is grounded in the British's decision to not provide military aid to the Greek Government in light of the civil war, the United States is also confronted with helping "free peoples" against totalitarian encroachments as the further expansion of authoritarianism would “undermine the foundations of international peace ...