What happens when the much lessened power of the erstwhile hegemonic power seems clear to other countries is that relative order in the world-system is replaced by a chaotic struggle among multiple poles of power, none of which can control the situation.
In the diplomatic negotiations that are now quite unexpectedly blossoming between Iran and the United States, one has to say that the Iranians have shown the greater capacity for verbal formulas that catch popular imagination.
The United States no longer has the power to enforce its decisions. But Obama is unwilling to recognize this reality. In this regard, much of U.S. public opinion is ahead of him. And it is precisely this fact that is emphasized by many opponents.
It is almost always bad news when armies are in power. In Egypt, the army has been the deciding force since 1952. The recent destitution by the Egyptian army of President Mohamed Morsi was not a coup d’état. One cannot commit a coup d’état against oneself. What happened was simply that the army changed the way it was governing Egypt.
The very title of this commentary poses a question. What or who is the left? There is little agreement on this subject. I shall use the term to include any group that claims it is part of the left or at least left-of-center. This is of course a wide group. And, consequently, there is very little agreement among it as to whom to support, morally or politically, in the enormous turmoil that has been shaking Egypt and led to the deposition by the Egyptian armed forces of Mohamed Morsi as president of Egypt.
We are in the midst of a structural transition from a fading capitalist world-economy to a new kind of system. But that new kind of system could be better or worse. That is the real battle of the next 20-40 years.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019