How ‘America Last’ built power — and ‘America First’ could destroy it

In his speech to a joint session of Congress on 4 March, US President Donald Trump addressed the nation as defiantly as ever in promising to take America on a new course in world affairs. He touted a posture that has become his calling card for the new model of foreign relations. This “America First” philosophy has placed the nation on a bold path that resonates with neoconservatives and breaks diametrically with the vision that has guided American foreign policy since the end of World War II, i.e., a hegemonic leadership I refer to as “America Last”.

The neoconservative philosophy of the Bush administration has manifested itself in a more robust form under Trump. According to this vision, America has achieved military and economic primacy in the world. It can, and should, therefore use this superior position to shape international affairs according to its most vital interests.

Trump has embraced this mandate with gusto. He has instituted a strategy of neo-imperialism that revised many old imperialistic tropes regarding access to land for both strategic and economic purposes: “taking back” the Panama Canal to secure trade routes, acquiring Greenland for resources and strategic location, annexing Canada and extorting mineral rights from the Ukraine. 

He has embarked on a mercantilistic crusade to pursue economic growth behind prodigious walls of protection and autarchy. In this respect, he has declared an economic war against erstwhile allies and foes alike. He has closed down American shores to immigrants, and concomitantly has attempted to shut down the spigot of foreign assistance to the world at large. He has for the time being abandoned longstanding agreements among nations and allies, in rolling back America’s supranational presence. He has roiled longstanding security communities and distanced the nation from erstwhile commitments to provide resources in protection of allies.

“America First” has placed the nation in a predatory position in the world system: seeking to extract as many unilateral gains as could be acquired short of military aggression. Indeed, America has declared itself a free rider in the global community. 

This takes a 180-degree turn from the post-war order built on US enlightened hegemony, which essentially saw the US put itself “last” in order to build a stable, democratic and liberal global system. In this respect, the US allowed itself to be free-ridden upon, rather than free riding on other nations. 

The US provided abundant liquidity across the globe to rebuild war-torn nations in the first world and promote democratic development in the third world. US dollars lubricated the global economic system. In terms of trade policy, the US allowed nations to have greater barriers against its products than it erected for their products, and thus enhance industrial growth overseas. The US built a supranational structure (the Bretton Woods system) that oversaw economic growth across nations. It built strong alliances and formed security communities under its nuclear umbrella. 

The Trumpian turn threatens to cost the US a great deal both in terms of hard and soft power. This potential damage represents a double-edge sword of enervation. The two interact such that losing both will introduce a compound effect in the loss of American influence. 

In terms of soft power, this acrimonious assault on longstanding allies and friends will undermine whatever goodwill was generated in the post-war hegemonic guardianship. The US is not so powerful that it does not require cooperation and accommodations from nations in order to protect its vital foreign interests. This good will has generated the soft power that is crucial to American objectives in an interdependent and a rising multipolar world. The US has never gone it alone. Certainly, without the cooperation of every nation it has had relations with, it could never have achieved the primacy it has enjoyed in the post-war world.

Much of that cooperation has been a function of American soft power. The US has relied on this soft power in a plethora of contexts, far too many to even name: from access to important supply chains to accessing strategic assets both geographic and technological. American soft power has been largely responsible for the post-war economic miracle in the US, as the nation became an economic, political and social lightning rod. The present abandonment of supranational organisation will place it outside the circle of influence over important developments in the international system that are managed in these bureaucracies. 

Trump believes he can obtain the nation’s most vital objectives through threat and extortion. History has shown that such oppression is not sustainable, even in the most asymmetrical power relations. Brutes will lose in the end. The shock and fallout will undermine America’s interests and leave it a far weaker nation in many ways.

The “America Last” campaign was responsible for spreading the system of liberal capitalism across the globe. Just imagine how much the US has benefited from a world that adopted its political and economic practices: the rest of the world has essentially been carved in her image. The soft power of the America last campaign built a golden scaffolding in the global order, one that has benefited the US greatly. Trump’s America first crusade could tear it asunder.

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