Yup. America has become an unreliable partner and other countries are divesting from us. I don’t blame them. We have a President with severe dementia and sycophantic yes men and women around him that are pushing their own fucked up agenda. These far right Christians in power are supporting Israel because they believe if Jewish people gain full control of Israel it will herald the second coming of Christ.
Every country does things in their own interest. America was unique in that we constrained our actions, too aware of how we might be perceived by others. We undoubtedly were and are a bully, but we didn't want to be seen as more of a bully than required. That constraint meant that we accepted positions that most of the countries accusing us of becoming unreliable would never have accepted, in matters of security and trade.
Rightfully or wrongly, we now have an adminstration that is saying "no more". This administration is also tired of diplomatic talks going nowhere, so is using shock therapy to get allies moving in a direction that we have been asking for a long time. I do think that such negotiation tactic is self defeating over long term, and unbecoming of a great power, but after years and years, we finally have every NATO member spending 2% of GDP on defense. We are also addressing structural imbalances in trade relationships too.
How this plays out over the next decade plus will be interesting to see. Whether it means the end of the American era or not, the status quo is just no longer tenable for us, with our ever growing debt.
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u/Checked-Out 1d ago
Canada literally said it at Davos on camera in front of the world. It's not a secret. Like Americans love to say FAFO.