“We have met the enemy and he is us"

This is the beginning of an astonishing article in the achingly liberal, globalist, Democrat newspaper the New York Times, about Richard N. Haass, the outgoing president of the oldest American foreign policy think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, set up by the daddy of American liberal foreign policy, President Woodrow Wilson.

It seems Mr Haas, 71, has witnessed a shaft of light before the setting of the sun. 

It reminds me of the mystical experiences that Aquinas and Pascal experienced late in life which they said were worth more than all their philosophy.

Everywhere he has gone as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard N. Haass has been asked the same question: What keeps him up at night? He has had no shortage of options over the years — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, climate change, international terrorism, food insecurity, the global pandemic.

But as he steps down after two decades running America’s most storied private organization focused on international affairs, Mr. Haass has come to a disturbing conclusion. The most serious danger to the security of the world right now? The threat that costs him sleep? The United States itself.

“It’s us,” he said ruefully the other day.

That was never a thought this global strategist would have entertained until recently. But in his mind, the unravelling of the American political system means that for the first time in his life the internal threat has surpassed the external threat. Instead of being the most reliable anchor in a volatile world, Mr. Haass said, the United States has become the most profound source of instability and an uncertain exemplar of democracy.

“Our domestic political situation is not only one that others don’t want to emulate,” he said in an interview ahead of his last day at the Council on Foreign Relations on Friday. “But I also think that it’s introduced a degree of unpredictability and a lack of reliability that’s really poisonous. For America’s ability to function successfully in the world, I mean, it makes it very hard for our friends to depend on us.”

He is right, of course, though right for a strange reason. He thinks globalism has failed because it is provoking nationalism and a return to classical geopolitics. 

He is scared of Trump when, as far as foreign policy goes, he should be very scared of Biden and Blinken.

Of course Russia, China, Iran, North Korea are false enemies. The Covid pandemic, of course, was.  I think climate change is too.

I long ago gave up the NYT for the sake of my blood pressure. I owe news of the revelation that Mr Haas received to this blog post, which someone sent to me. The post makes good points, though one cannot take an author very seriously since he thinks September 11 was carried out not by Al Qaeda but somebody else (I couldn't be bothered to research to find out who).