When America polices the world, everybody loses | Jeffrey Sachs | Big Think

When America polices the world, everybody loses
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make no mistake, says Jeffrey Sachs, America is an empire. The end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles put the United States on a trajectory to exercise political control over foreign governments and topple world leaders on a whim, which, Sachs reminds us, is quite crazy.

"Remember when President Obama said Assad must go in Syria?" says Sachs. "I scratched my head and said: How can an American president say that the Syrian president must go?"

When America gets topple-happy, the result is catastrophe — just look at Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran. Overreach of power by the United States destabilizes global politics, threatens U.S. national security, and sets a ticking time bomb for violence and civil war. This kind of foreign policy is doomed to fail.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JEFFREY SACHS:

Jeffrey Sachs is is an American economist and co-founder and chief strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. He is also the former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor, the highest rank that Columbia bestows on its faculty.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:

JEFFREY SACHS: Power doesn't stick. You can try to impose your will on other countries and peoples, but without legitimacy what you end up with is unrest, instability, turmoil and the "need" — quote unquote — for violence to repress that turmoil. We've had, for the last century, an incredible upheaval. Indeed, I think we're still living in the aftermath of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, was not a treaty of peace but a treaty of mess. It gave new imperial powers, for example, to the British Empire in the Middle East and to France. And it's in those very places the remnants of the Ottoman Empire in Iraq or in Syria or in Lebanon or in Palestine, now Israel, we have the continuing conflicts. The settlements that were made at the end of World War I were settlements for European imperial powers, not settlements for self-government, not the war to end all wars as Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. president at the time, promised the American people. In other words, power rather than justice was the message at the end of World War I.

So the wars that we have in the Middle East today were played first in the post-Ottoman wars that Britain and France engaged in in their new imperial roles in the Middle East. The United States took over those empires, in essence, after World War II, when Britain and France retreated from empire, the United States expanded its military reach. Americans never like to think of America as having an empire, but empire means keeping political control over others. We generally have not done it in U.S. history by direct ownership of other places – though we've had our colonies and still have them – but rather through manipulating foreign governments, toppling governments we didn't like. Think of Iran, where in 1953 the United States, the CIA that is, and British intelligence conspired to overthrow the elected Iranian government of Prime Minister Mossadegh and to install a police state under the Shah, who lasted until 1979, until the revolution came and threw a hated despot over — a despot associated with the United States.

The point is the attempt to impose rule on others in an era of literacy, communication, spreading capacity is not only immoral but it is doomed to fail. And the United States' efforts to impose the U.S. will in Iraq, for example, by overthrowing Saddam Hussein in 2003, or in Libya by overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, or the attempt — remember when President Obama said Assad must go in Syria? I scratched my head and said how can an American president say that the Syrian president must go? Well, we did. President Obama issued a secret CIA order, a presidential finding that the CIA should cooperate with Saudi Arabia to overthrow the Syrian government. That didn't turn out too well because the Syrian government had friends — Russia, Iran — which defended Assad's regime and even though the U.S. was there trying to destabilize it what happened, not surprisingly, was catastrophe! The flood of arms and jihadists into that little country, violence, and the flood of millions of refugees out of the country.

My response is a big: "Duh." What did you expect when you try to overthrow a country in the Middle East in a region of such instability...

[kirthikr]

To add on top of that, Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 and from that moment I stopped following the Nobel Peace Prize!

[jasminechen]

great talk, so insighful, somber, analytical, though heart-saddening. Admire Prof.Sachs for being the courageous, out-spoken and conscientious scholar who fearlessly points out the tremendous arrogance and stupidity of US gov.

[WlSDOOM]

Good analysis. Don't give politicians the benefit of the doubt, they know exactly what they are doing. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" ~ Mao

[ajaysridharan]

This man’s lucidity and fearlessness is inspiring! Keep it up Mr.Sachs. Also, love the fact that he could openly talk like this - America is doing some things right within its borders

[PrimericanIdol]

This has aged very well. Jeffie has always been spot on.

[BirdArvid]

Thank you, Mr Sachs for pointing out what should have been obvious to everyone: 1; the world wars and pretty much every war since have been about power and control; about Imperialism, colonialism, power and money. And 2: US "nation-building" is a "doomed to failure" extension of that same imperialism. A practice the US learned from Britain, France, Spain, Germany and others, a practice perfected because of being able to put more than (absolute) military power behind it but also economic and political power. I personally look forward to the end of the US century.

[DoomRulz]

Is anyone else but me having a flashback to Saddler from Resident Evil 4, when he confronted Leon in the church?

"No longer will the United States think that they can police the world forever!"

[vladanlausevic]

A principle should be. Do not demand from a government to do things that you would never want a government to do against yourself

[snickerbars]

Someone has the spine to speak the
It has nothing to do with freedom and democracy which the kid from Alabama think he is fighting
Sadly few realise and a lot of lifes lost for the bidding of few...

[vladanlausevic]

This is why it is important that states are cosmopolitan in how the act. The wsr against Iraq was a total humanitarian and economic failure that also gave globalization a worse reputation

[judijaba]

Last time I checked, America was a continent with 34 countries.

[lance]

Take care of American born citizens screw the rest of the world that don’t pay our taxes or bills.

[matthewroth]

Jeffrey Sachs here pretty much sums up his main points and concerns from his 2018 book, *A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism* and this rings true again now with Ukraine War going back to 2014 and the blowing up of Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

[ZxZ]

Sadly no empire ever ended its empire ways voluntarily, it either ended with much war death and destruction, or it became overstretched and had to end because it had no choice like the USSR, and this is the far better outcome than the first.

[anonymous.youtuber]

Do me a big favour and run for president, please ?

[realnaveen]

It is unbelievable that video is of 2018 and so clear! Hegemony has gone too far unnecessarily to antagonize. Hope order emerges out of chaos!

[Bulbophile]

Well assuming you recorded this yesterday, and uploaded it then, you're still alive good man...

[ChessMasteryOfficial]

*Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them...*

[psy]

Good for the people who think they do not need some powerful guardian to look after them if needed I tried but failed miserably by avoiding my family and friends. Same goes for the world if countries think they can survive on their own independently without others for help good for them.

[littleray]

America’s army and politics need to focus on America not everyone else because we have problems no one is solving