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Resign as a Great Power? Unprecedented [1]

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Date: 2025-04-30

The word ‘unprecedented’ has seen a lot of use lately, for good reason. Here is one more application.

In 1952, a revolutionary group led by Egyptian Army Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser overthrew the British-dominated Egyptian government. The relationship between Great Britain and the new rulers of Egypt were unsettled at best and openly hostile at worst. Under Nasser, Egypt adopted more aggressive policies against both Europe and even more aggressive policies against Israel. The last straw for the Europeans may have been on July 26, 1956 when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. That fall, Israel, Great Britain and France invaded Egypt, Israel on October 29 and the Europeans on November 5. Israel’s goal was to re-open shipping through the Tiran Straits, while Britain and France wanted the canal returned to their ownership. The United States was against this attack. President Dwight Eisenhower made some calls, mobilized the US-subservient United Nations, and in a few days forced an end to the whole adventure. Egypt kept the canal. That was the last time the Europeans took extensive military action without at least tacit US approval.

Since then, the US has dominated what was once called the ‘free world’. In North America, trade agreements have created a continent-wide commercial market controlled by the US. Mexico and Canada have benefitted, but the US has benefitted the most. In Europe, the US has run NATO since it was formed. The Europeans have benefitted from US military protection, and in return have let the US have the largest voice by far in NATO decisions.

In short, the US has spent the years since WWII building a series of world wide agreements and alliances, all dominated by the US, that helped us manage the political and economic structures of the ‘free world’ for the benefit of all, but especially for the benefit of the US. We have not always been on the side of the angels, and we certainly have not always made the best decisions, but for 80 years, the US has dominated the world more extensively and effectively than any empire in history. In recent years this domination has become less absolute, especially with the rise of China, but overall the US with its allies is still the most powerful and far reaching political and economic force the world has ever seen.

I am not a historian. But I have read a lot of history, especially that of Europe and North America. Over the years, great powers have come and gone. Each one has had its spheres of influence and its allies and enemies. Who was an ally and who was an enemy shifted over time. Britain and France were rivals and enemies for years and then became allies. And nations that were powerful for a time ultimately lost a great deal of their power and influence.

But, and however.

As far as I know, it is unprecedented for a great power to simply abandon that position and retreat into a kind of isolationism. The US under Donald Trump is rejecting our traditional alliances - which we built up over many years - for a go-it-alone approach to international affairs that will lead to diminished influence. We are abandoning our position as a great power. This is unprecedented. Not only are we withdrawing from our commitments and alliances; we are actually changing sides in a conflict that has gone on since WWII. Nations have changed alliances and even changed sides in wars, but never this quickly and widely. The scale of our about-face and the abandonment of our hard-won international influence is unprecedented.

These actions are unprecedented for a good reason - they are abysmally stupid. We are abandoning an international order that greatly benefitted us - and the world - for no reason other than the whims of an incompetent three-year-old.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/30/2319717/-Resign-as-a-Great-Power-Unprecedented?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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