Everything about the American position in the international system is based upon the Americans holding together what we currently call the international order. Americans have been doing this since 1944. At that point the Americans re-forged the global system, shifting it from a series of warring imperial networks into a global system they personally managed. The Americans imposed global order — the first global order — and created free trade as a means of purchasing the loyalty of the Western and Asian allies, the defeated Axis powers, and in time Communist China. It was all about paying for alliance networks to contain and defeat the Soviet Union. When the Cold War ended the Americans neglected to shift their policies. The Americans continued to provide global security and empower global trade, but did so without the requisite security quid pro quo.
People noticed. The Brazil/Russia/China/India boom could only happen in such a strategic moment in time. The euro could only exist when economics were protected and security was free. But it wasn’t just in the wider world that people noticed. Free trade isn’t really free. Free trade requires someone providing the physical security and global ballast and market access to indirectly subsidize the rest of the system. The Americans have provided that for seven decades, and for the last three decades they have done so without asking for anything in return. With the Trump rise, this whole thing is now in its final years. Perhaps in its final months.
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