The “only thing worse than being the United States’ enemy is being its friend.”—Henry Kissinger
This embarrassing statement by one of USA’s top diplomats was wished away by saying that it was meant to be a joke. Yet at times it came frighteningly close to reality, particularly in the case of those countries—Ukraine is the latest example—which had the misfortune of being selected to fight the USA’s proxy wars. As friends they received billions of dollars from the USA, mostly in military aid, but also suffered terrible devastation in the course of proxy wars which generally also had longer-term very adverse consequences.
Now in different contexts also some of the closest friends and allies of the USA are feeling the heat in unexpected ways, related to their close relations with the USA.
When President-elect Donald Trump first mentioned the possibility of Canada becoming the 51st state of the USA, this was also treated by some, perhaps as a way of seeking nervous comfort, as a joke, but as in the case of Kissinger’s statement, this may not always remain a joke and may have quite different and serious implications.
The other offer of Trump of ‘purchasing’ Greenland was taken more seriously from the outset, protests of Denmark and Greenland authorities notwithstanding, because similar offers had been made earlier.
Of course thinking of Canada as 51st state requires excess of imagination as the size of Canada is larger than present day USA, but what may make some imperialists dream of this annexation or merger is that if the USA actually annexes Canada then in one stroke it becomes by far the largest country in the world, leaving Russia and China far behind, and if the easier deal of Greenland is included too, taking USA to about 21 million square km, then the imperial glory expands further, and so do enormous natural resources and strategic assets.
This can be dominance by other means, in fact dominance likely to involve less bloodshed. The dominant thinking so far among the advocates of forever dominance of the USA and its unchallenged number one position had been that at some stage the USA has to defeat the other two great powers of Russia and China in wars or proxy wars to ensure forever dominance and unchallenged number one position.
However in the course of the Ukraine war and in other ways it must have dawned on some of these champions of dominance that this task is by no means easy and is likely to result in wars involving huge destruction and even risking a world war and a nuclear war in which there can be no winners. However as in this mindset and way of thinking the quest for dominance cannot be given up, so an alternative approach for them can be to imagine the USA as a much bigger and wider country which would be more than double its present size with enormously more resources. The dominance becomes even stronger if the quest for a greater USA is accompanied by the quest for a greater Israel in another part of the world which is of crucial importance from the point of view of natural resources.
Before someone starts appreciating greater USA as a less bloody and less violent route to securing the dominance of the USA, one which avoids direct war with Russia and China, it should be understood clearly that the quest for dominance never fully ends and as long as the same tendencies remain dominant, can start all over again after spending some time in digesting one-time acquisitions.
How will USA’s other traditional allies react to its emerging thinking on Canada and Greenland? They may be unhappy about this but their unhappiness may not amount to much as their status as allies is likely to be degraded further beyond what has actually happened in recent times.
There are already indications of such degrading and lack of concern regarding what European allies may say or think. As reported by the Financial Times on January 9, billionaire Elon Musk, who will be working very closely with the new US president and earlier made the biggest financial contributions to his election campaign, has held private discussions with allies about removing British PM Keir Starmer from his position before the next general election. The report said that Musk has been weighing how he and his allies can destabilize the Labor government. Earlier in December Musk had endorsed a German anti-immigration party ahead of German elections scheduled for February.
What appears to be emerging is that the USA’s quest for dominance will certainly continue but it will take different forms and the coming in of a new government with a President capable of saying things considered too outrageous by others suits this change.
Some of the upcoming changes may be very troublesome for some of the traditional allies of the USA. However beyond their troubles what is most important to remember is that merely changing forms of dominance will never bring peace and stability to the world. These can only come when new value systems based on cooperation and protection replace the existing systems based on dominance and destruction. This is why a worldwide peace and disarmament movement involving many millions of people all over the world has become more important than ever before. What is more, it is only in conditions of peace and stability that the many-sided and life-threatening environmental crisis can be resolved. Hence peace and environment protection must both get the highest priority at world level and millions of people are most likely to join these efforts if these are pursued along with justice and equality. Hence the social movements of peace, environment protection and justice should work together with increasing commitment and come closer to each other.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071 and Earth without Borders.
