The reason why Putin finds it so easy to wrestle world dominance from the US is that he has found the main weakness of the American foreign policy. The US policy is notoriously based on short-term needs.
Arm the Taliban in Afghanistan then spend a decade fighting it. Support the Arab Spring, then start sending drones when things don’t go as you expected. Push Cuba towards the USSR, then deal with a variety of suddenly Socialist countries in South America. Coddle Putin, welcome him to the G8, then expel him, or not, or maybe yes. Sign the Budapest treaties with Ukraine, then forget all about them 20 years later.
The electoral cycle is relentless, and this is how a democracy always falls behind a totalitarian regime. A totalitarian leader like Putin doesn’t have to fear reelection. He can choose a plan of action and consistently, coherently and relentlessly plod along towards his goal.
Of course, I’m not writing this to suggest that totalitarianism is better than democracy. Totalitarianism is wrong on every level. But what we miss in order to combat it effectively is the single-minded and shared conviction that, despite the inevitable and necessary differences in our views, we share the same basic values and are ready to fight for them.
Unless we do that and do that soon, we will have a minimal presence on the world arena and will see the planet engulfed by people whose values are vastly inferior to ours. Look, I know this is an unpopular thing to say, but I have lived in the FSU and in North America and I’m deeply convinced that the way North Americans relate to each other and to the world is vastly superior to anything one can find in the post-Soviet space.
We are not perfect in the US and Canada, far from it. But we have things that are definitely worth defending and exporting overseas. And the Russian Empire that is being reborn in front of our very eyes doesn’t.
Clarissa's Blog 
Whittaker Chambers made the exact same points in the 1950s. I too have lived in the former USSR and US and don’t have much good to say about the politics of the first. But, I will stay optimistic and note that today unlike the 1950s-1980s nobody in Africa sees anything positive about the old Soviet model or has any illusions about the current regime in Russia. In fact the governments of Nigeria, Chad, and Rwanda have all declared the referendum to illegitimate.
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I’m glad to hear that Africa has learned this tragic lesson. Now we’ll see if Latin America has.
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…and I’m deeply convinced that the way North Americans relate to each other and to the world is vastly superior to anything one can find in the post-Soviet space.
About “to each other” I definitely agree. I also would agree with “to immigrants of European decent”… Do not know about “to the world”… OK, if the comparison is strictly with the Post-Soviet space, you may be correct. But in general there is so much room for improvement. Unfortunately, I have not seen the US exporting anything of value (I am talking about the realm of values, not the realm of material goods, of course) for a long time. The US alternates between exporting Haliburton (figuratively speaking) and being a hostage of its own myth – blindly supporting whomever happens to proclaim themselves freedom fighters the loudest. The value of critical thinking is completely abandoned, and you cannot export something you do not really have. OK, not completely abandoned, as refusing to bomb Syria and to support radical islamists backed by Saudis suggests… But this is exactly what Obama is criticized for now…
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” Do not know about “to the world””
– When I say “to the world”, I mean “to the universe” or “to existence as such.” If I meant politically, I’d say “to the planet.” I know, I should stop with the Clarissa-speak. 🙂 The foreign policy of the US has been and continues being ridiculously bad.
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Two other reasons Putin is winning.
Obama is the most reflexively anti-military president…. ever. There are reports of him purging and firing generals at unprecedented rates. IF the stories are half true then they’re really scary.
The west doesn’t believe in itself. You write something positive about western values and are mostly met with skepticism and essentially no agreement. That’s really telling.
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“The west doesn’t believe in itself. You write something positive about western values and are mostly met with skepticism and essentially no agreement.”
– Yep. Exactly. 🙂 I’d get many more hits FROM AMERICANS if I wrote that the US is a shitty country with nasty people, agreeing with me.
It’s the same with the academic world. If I wrote that I hate academia, I’d be an ultra-popular blogger. But I love academia, so I’m less popular than I could be.
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You must embrace your negative dialectics with a sham intensity that shows your utopian street cred, mind you …
How dare you disturb the tranquil of the negative utopia with some well-reasoned critique straight out of Paul Ricoeur’s school of thought! 🙂
Why, they’ll have to mount an Imbecile’s Great Refusal just to mock you …
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I am honestly so paranoid about this situation with Russia. I have been reading your blog for the inside scoop, so thanks for talking about it! Initially, I thought, “omg, this could be World War III,” but I don’t think that Americans currently have the will for war, especially not a war with a nuclear power.
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“Of course, I’m not writing this to suggest that totalitarianism is better than democracy.”
There are pluralities within the concept of totalitarianism — one emergent variety is known as “inverted totalitarianism”, which is a form that arises in democratic states.
This comes from the original coiner of the term:
“Inverted totalitarianism reverses things. It is all politics all of the time but a politics largely untempered by the political.”
Hence it’s more difficult to counter it because it doesn’t show itself as a traditional politics of the commonweal …
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To be fair, anything that Obama does here is a losing proposition.
In the case of Syria, he was excoriated by both the left and right for even attempting to take a hardline stance (with his ‘red line’ speech). The right, because they reflexively hate everything he does, and the left because they didn’t want any more military action. I don’t remember your exact position, but I know you’ve said it’s high time america stopped meddling in the affairs of other countries, and that the people there have to find their own way to stave off oppression, and it’s paternalistic for the US government to declare itself the defender of freedom and liberty in the world etc.
Fox news, predictably, called him a dictator for wanting to take military action there.
Now, if he doesn’t do anything he’s accused of being weak, letting Putin run circles around him. The same people who were accusing him of being a tyrant before now see him as a wimp who is singlehandedly destroying america’s reputation as a superpower.
This is a game he can’t win no matter what he does.
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The thing is, these are not affairs of another country. The US freely undertook to sign Budapest Accords. After this was done and Ukraine fulfilled its part of the agreements, this stopped being an external affair. When you sign a contract, upholding its terms becomes your business.
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Besides, the only sanctions I support are not letting the bandits into the US and expropriating everything they hold in the US. Ideally, this money and property should be held in trust for the Russian people for after they are free from Putin. I know this will never happen, but it would be beautiful.
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