The United States is not at war. It’s not at peace, either, at least not with the breezy confidence that prevailed until Wednesday night.
The presumption of peace among the world’s most powerful nations has been shattered; wishful thinking or reassuring words will not restore it. American policy and society must adapt to a new and dangerous global struggle.
This new order doesn’t mean 1940s-style war bonds and mass mobilization; it does mean prioritizing economic, social and military preparedness with a national focus absent since the fall of the Berlin Wall more than 30 years ago.
The United States needs to bolster supply chains — either through domestic production or client states — of essential raw materials, including energy. Offshoring everything for cheap labor doesn’t just maximize profits at the expense of American workers: It could threaten national security.
Pennsylvania, with its history of manufacturing and skilled workers, can play a special role. Roughly 300,000 tons of critical rare earth elements can be reclaimed from coal mine waste in this state alone, reports the Department of Energy. Working with the private sector, the Biden and Wolf administrations should make reclamation projects a priority.
The United States can no longer regard Russia and China as potential partners in a liberal-democratic global order but as adversaries whose interests contradict its own. That’s not a leap of faith. Just heed the words of Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese premier Xi Jinping. In a joint statement of friendship at the beginning of the Winter Olympics, the two leaders announced their intention to build an explicitly post-American world order. Mr. Putin started digging a few weeks later.
Truth be told, these strongmen smell blood in the water. America is weakening. At issue isn’t defense spending or military deployments but whether this nation’s public and private institutions can muster the will to work for national interests and ideals. In other words, are Americans and their allies willing to sacrifice anything meaningful for a greater good?
On Thursday, President Joe Biden said, in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “Liberty, democracy, human dignity — these ... cannot be erased from people’s hearts and hopes by any amount of violence and intimidation.”
These values, however, are not sustained by soothing words, no matter how uplifting. That’s, at least in part, how the West became complacent and vulnerable. They depend on people and nations who believe in them enough to sacrifice and fight for them.
Whether America still does will define the next era of global politics.
First Published: February 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.