Jeffrey Sachs on Trump and multilateralism

Comments:

I think the US is obviously the problem with multilateralism but I disagree with much of his postulates. He is coming from a 20th-century posture regarding multilateralism, and that rested on a ‘Pax Americana’ that is untenable.

Much of America’s political discourse concerns government services provided in other countries, such as universal healthcare and higher education, etc. It is not a coincidence that these services began to be provided in these countries in the wake of World War II, when countries shut down their military apparatuses and joined the American sphere. Since that time, America has continued to spend on its military and has 800 bases as he mentioned. What are those bases for? Well, they’re so no one else builds bases.

Countries without militaries can’t make war. But bases cost money. Who pays for these bases in Europe? People in the US with poor healthcare. Who benefits from the bases? People in the EU who have excellent healthcare. The EU is a competitor as he mentions. China likewise still benefits from a 20th-century status quo that identifies them as a ‘developing’ country. What makes them developing? It’s an arbitrary designation but a meaningful one – for example in the Paris agreement, developed countries had to contribute money to developing countries to combat climate change. China is the largest carbon emitter in the world and has a higher per capita rate of emissions than all countries save the United States and some gulf states. China’s manufacturing sector has essentially grown proportionally to the US’s manufacturing sector’s decline.

There are zero-sum relationships at play, and a multilateralism that rests on the Pax Americana of the 20th century pretends this is not the case.
I think he’s right that Trump and China is just the latest manifestation of this.

St. Cyr Monroe

He totally discounted China’s espionage efforts, Iran’s lies, and the bias of many world organizations including the UN. I am no fan of Trump’s but he didn’t let China get away with stealing the worlds, not just the US’s secrets.

Wait until Countries have to deal with China as the preeminent world power. They are just as bigoted, as are the Germans, French, Poles, Japanese, Muslims as he says the US is. He is a hypocrite and should be called out for his half-truths. The world isn’t black and white. There are no good guys among countries unless they are forced to be. I hope Biden has the balls to stand up to the Chinese. They are the world problem.

Mickey David Altman