The house Uncle Sam built cracks
The process of weakening the US position in the world continues. The house Uncle Sam built creates one crack after another. The loss of European allies confidence in the American Big Brother began with Bradley Manning's revelations, who gave food to WikiLeaks. The next blow was Edward Snowden. As a result, Germany canceled an intelligence agreement concluded with the United States and Britain during the Cold War era. The inadmissibility of such practices in the relations of the allies was announced by Angela Merkel, whose phone the NSA had tapped since 2002. Obama was in an uncomfortable position for the president of a great power, when he was forced to declare that he did not know anything about this tapping of the German Chancellor, after which the German media brought the final clarity to this question: it was Obama who ordered him to listen to telephone conversations.
As a result, Europe has already denied the United States access to the SWIFT financial database, which is located in Switzerland and contains information about billions of transactions worldwide. MEPs decided to take this step at the end of October. In support of the decision on the termination of access to the database, 280 deputies of the European Parliament voted.
In addition, the European Parliament intends to prohibit large companies to transfer personal data of EU citizens to the authorities of other states. Parliamentarians have developed an amendment to the law on personal information. According to this amendment, large corporations, such as Google or Yahoo, will have to request permission from the EU authorities to transfer information about users in the United States.
The other day the head of the German Ministry of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on air of the radio station Deutschlandfunk said: "If our suspicions are confirmed and it comes to initiating the case, the Federal Prosecutor's Office of the Federal Republic of Germany will have to work out the question of a possible interrogation of Snowden as a witness." According to the minister, the European Union should suspend an agreement between the EU and the United States on tracking the financing of terrorist activities: “Obama’s apologies are not enough. In my opinion, the decisive point is whether Americans can change their data collection policy without any restrictions. ”
Another consequence of Snowden’s revelations for the United States was the decision of the 28 leaders of the European Union member states to instruct the German Chancellor and the French President to discuss the wiretap problem with the administration of Barack Obama in order to reach a mutual understanding of the limits of intelligence activities. This initiative was supported even by British Prime Minister David Cameron, despite the “special relations” of the British with the United States.
Given that the current revelations of Snowden may not be the last, we can assume that the old harmony in relations between the US and Europe is far behind. Spying Americans for the Allies dealt a serious blow to the transatlantic partnership. Berlin is most decisive in this - despite the strength of the pro-American lobby in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In parallel, the process of weakening US influence in the Middle East is developing. Washington's unsuccessful attempt to resolve the “Syrian issue” with the help of military force did not allow Barack Obama to noticeably influence the G20 agenda in St. Petersburg. However, the matter did not stop at Syria. The United States was forced to revise the foundations of all its policies in the Middle East, beginning to shift the emphasis from cooperation with the despotic Gulf regimes towards developing relations with Iran. Riyadh rather sharply reacted to this Washington maneuver, in its turn threatening to reconsider relations with the United States. And Tehran is clearly not in a hurry to accept the American rules of the game. There have been cracks in the relations of such US Middle Eastern allies as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
At the same time, US withdrawal from Afghanistan is nearing. In Kyrgyzstan, Americans were asked to leave the Manas base.
It is getting harder and harder for Washington to retain its influence in Latin America. If Brazil succeeds in maintaining stable economic growth rates, it will occupy the same position in Latin America as Germany does in Europe. The economic and military-political ties of Brazil and other large Latin American countries with Russia and China are becoming stronger.
The recent budget crisis did not remain without consequences for US foreign policy. There is a growing understanding that the enormous public debt of the United States, as emphasized by Professor Valentin Katasonov, represents a "threat to the stability of the world economy."
The results of US foreign and domestic policy in 2013 do not promise anything comforting to Washington. The house that Uncle Sam built built serious cracks in many areas: conflicts with most American allies are growing; the possibilities for US military intervention without a UN mandate in situations of international crises are narrowing; The US economy, built on an unsecured dollar, is recognized as a threat to the global economy: protest sentiments are intensifying in the USA itself, whole enclaves arise in a number of large American cities, in which, in fact, legal authority no longer functions; the signs of a split in the ruling circles of America are multiplying ...
Does all this mean that we will soon witness the end of the Pax Americana project?
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