At the time of writing these lines, The United States (EU) does not have an ambassador in Egypt. A chargé d’affaires will do the job as the nominee for the job enters the seventh month of his Senate confirmation process. Something similar happened at the US embassies in Kuwait, Oman and Israel (although there is pressure to fill the vacancy soon).
Maybe the country preoccupied with the politics of its own hemisphere, with the constant influx of immigrants from Latin America to the southern border. but Colombiaa source of such traffic, no ambassador. Peru and Guatemala, no.
Contrast this with the Indo-Pacific region. There, the US has a good supply of personnel. In this area of competition between the US and China, Washington does not hesitate. The country’s main economic and military rival is also the focus of its attention.
This monomania is unsustainable, as events in the Middle East have shown. After paying little attention to China for decades, American elites have overcorrected in recent years. There is a mental “pivot in Asia,” which was conceived when most other regions, if not peaceful, then without serious crises. Today there is a ground war in Europe, and the worst violence between Israelis and Palestinians since the early years of this century.
The US was able to fight the European Union because of industrial protectionism when the main goal was to stop China. Focusing on a competitor is not easy. but the atrocities on October 7 in Israel, as well as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, They show that the world will not abandon the US so he can continue with his “real” project.
The US is going through the most uncomfortable phase in the life cycle of an empire. If the US hadn’t sent aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean after the Hamas attack on Israel, or hadn’t armed Ukraine, there might be talk of “isolationism” or a “reluctant- or superpower.” Enemies may be tempted to test your will in other places.
Deprioritizing China is not an option. Yes, there have been rapprochements between the two sides this year, and Joe Biden may meet Xi Jinping at a summit in San Francisco next month. but the tension of interests and values is undeniable. So, in the end, only the US has the only foreign policy that can always be used for a great power, which is to turn everywhere.
RPG
