Francis Fukuyama may not always have been right, e.g., prior views of the end of history and support for a neoconservative agenda, but he is a bonafide intellectual with great knowledge and insights.
It was with great interest that I read his views of how the United States has created its own problems in the international arena. His basic point is that we have no counterweight to our power (as in the Cold War). Our power has distorted our perspective that resulted in a number of mind-boggling problems.
He cites four such problems:
(1) The doctrine of preemption is impossible to maintain when dealing with nation states, e.g., Iran, Iraq, North Korea. We could never have the resources to mount such wide range preemptive attacks. The doctrine at best is one that needs not be discussed but still used in extreme situations, especially when dealing with specific terrorists.
(2) The United States did not count on the negative reception of its use of power. Traditionally, when we used power with prior support of others, other nations eventually supported us since we succeeded in a mission that ultimately was seen as positive. In this case, we were not supported and have only made more enemies.
(3) We overestimated the strength of conventional armed forces. He cites the amazing status of Iraq where so few are only at bay the conventional forces of the United States (and a few others).
(4) The level of incompetency in the planning and execution of the intervention was a disaster that only compounded the perception of the United States as a problem in itself.
While none of these points is necessarily "new", it is striking that Fukuyama is now on board with many others who cannot wait until we get the present administration out of office!
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