MR. VISHNU BISRAM has replied to my column of Monday, July 31 in which I opined that Pax Americana is gone.
Mr. Bisram argues that Pax America is very much alive, as it always was. I know of no respectable, independent scholar in non-partisan think-tanks or in universities in the United States that would argue that the American empire, as powerful as it was from 1945 to the beginning of the 21st century, is very much the same.

A simple Google search would highlight several brilliant pieces on the subject from scholars who are billions of miles away from left-wing thinking.
It is not only Pax Americana that has gone, but also the American Dream which took the world by storm in the latter stages of the 18th century. No independent sociologist or economist would be so naïve to argue that the US that gave birth to untold millions of rich immigrants from the 18th century to the beginning of the 21st century can still do that.
One does not have to research books after books to gain knowledge about that. One book tells the story of the fall of the American Dream – Thomas Piketty – “Capital in the 21st Century.” His statistics are simply breathtaking.

In the early 1990s, one of the most right-wing, hawkish intellectuals of Pax Americana, Charles Krauthammer, wrote that empires come and go, and the US empire will go one day, but until then the US must enjoy empire.
Krauthammer did not live beyond 2018 by which time he must have seen the emergence of a multi-polar world in which American trade dominance was seriously challenged.
President Donald Trump while in office once remarked that the formation of the European Union was done to challenge the US.

Trump may be a figure of disdain, but he is right on many of his observations including the inherent bias that characterises the American media landscape.
The birth of the EU has certainly dented the almighty power the US enjoyed in politics and trade after 1945. With the rise of China and India, and many other powerful middle powers, especially in the south of Asia, the US is not seen these days as the only superpower in the world.

Bisram advocates that small countries that are close to the US should stick with its close, friendly relation with the US because it is the pragmatic thing to do.
What is terribly lacking in Bisram’s prescription is whether the US is willing to treat those small countries as nations that need American economic, financial and trade assistance, and will offer such?

The history of US relations with the Caribbean countries is an ugly one. It is recommended that Bisram deeply digest the quote that I offer here which comes from Sir Ron Sanders who is by no means anti-American.
Mr. Sanders wrote: “The 14-nation independent states of the Caribbean Community have been at the bottom of US official development assistance for decades. In 2019, for instance, total US foreign assistance globally was US$47 billion, of which collectively, CARICOM countries received US$338 million or 0.7 per cent.

“For emphasis, that is less than one per cent of the global total. Haiti alone received US$268 million of that US$338 million intended for all 14 CARICOM states, leaving the other 13 to share US$70 million only. For nine of the 13 countries, the sum provided did not amount to US$1 million.”
Mr. Bisram should treat that quote as his Bible because its meaning is an apocalypse. Nine out of 13 CARICOM countries got less than a million US dollar assistance. Many in that group of nine nations got more than a million American dollars in the year 2019 from China and India respectively.

Bisram needs to understand the difference in philosophical/ideological conceptualisations between the US on the one hand and India, China and Europe on the other. The US has been born with an ideology of suspicion of state power.
It doesn’t believe the state should be a provider to people and organisations. That explains why the US is the only country in the world that does not have free medical service.

The Marshall Plan after 1945 was a very special thing because of the war and the US fight with communist USSR. But since the Marshall Plan, the US as a matter of philosophy, will not provide other countries with financial and economic help.
The US believes the free market system allows for the generation of wealth within countries. India, China and Europe because of the role the state played in their evolution believes there is a sacred role for the state in the life of society, thus Germany has free education at all levels. The Third World needs to make friends with those who can give.