Behind the Curtain
| Mon Jul. 13, 2009 7:21 AM PDT
Dan Drezner spent the past week guest lecturing at the Barcelona Institute for International Studies and reports back:
One mildly surprising finding from surveying my students was the extent to which many of them believed that the United States government was consciously manipulating every single event in world politics. Ironically, at the moment when many Americans are questioning the future of U.S. hegemony, many non-Americans continue to believe that the U.S. government is diabolically manipulating events behind the scenes (For example, the Ghanaians in the crowd wanted to know why Obama visited their country last week. The standard "promotion of good democratic governance" answer did not satisfy them, They were convinced that there had to be some deeper, potentially sinister motive to the whole enterprise).
Actually, the United States probably is trying to manipulate every single event in world politics. Dan's students were right about that. The part they're missing is that they don't understand just how bad we are at it. Answer: really bad.
Continues Below
Continued From Above
Comments
Oil in Ghana
Submitted by Trippp on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 7:53 AM PDT.
Is it really that hard to suspect that the recent US interest in Ghana has at least something to do with the discovery of oil there?
I mean c'mon.
Tripp
Reminds me of the British
Submitted by alan (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 8:07 AM PDT.
Reminds me of the British Empire a hundred years ago, where the presumed scale of diabolism was so much greater than the reality the British simply relied on their rep to keep people off balance.
US hegemony is likely to follow a similar roll-back, except that we have fewer direct, physical assets to lose, so it won't back up on us as badly.
The corrollary is over here the suspect is the New World Order.
Submitted by BigTom (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 8:40 AM PDT.
At least among conservatives. The NWO among other things, controls climate scientists, and is constantly plotting to eliminate US sovereignty....
really bad
Submitted by tpx on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 8:41 AM PDT.
Honduras, the mosque destroyed in Iran and the three million refugees in Pakistan demonstrate the Obama administration's competence.
I don't often laugh out loud
Submitted by sam (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 8:43 AM PDT.
I don't often laugh out loud at a Kevin Drum blog post, but I did at this one.
This is a real divide
Submitted by ajay (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 8:46 AM PDT.
This is a real divide between Americans and the rest of the world. Americans hear foreigners accusing the US of meddling in their politics behind the scenes, and think "ah, silly conspiracy theorists". But if you live in Latin America, or continental Europe, or the Middle East, the odds are that the US government has in fact meddled in your country's politics secretly at some point in the last 50 years - successfully or otherwise - and so suspecting that it might happen again simply shows that you've read some history.
Maybe not
Submitted by SRW1 (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 8:53 AM PDT.
"Actually, the United States probably is trying to manipulate every single event in world politics. Dan's students were right about that. The part they're missing is that they don't understand just how bad we are at it. Answer: really bad."
I think you're underestimating the level of sophistication that's out there, among Drezner's students or in the wider World public. Point of note you may have missed: There are now stirrings among the establishment conservatives in the UK that start to question the military engagement of the UK in Afghanistan. Not a good sign for the 'special relationship'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1198976/Who-guts-pull-out.html
This is somewhat hopeful.
Submitted by MNPundit (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 10:05 AM PDT.
This is somewhat hopeful. The perception of power is often time more important than power itself. If we can keep that for a while longer we might be able to retard China's growing power for a few more years.
The CIA can start riots in
Submitted by tpx on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 10:10 AM PDT.
The CIA can start riots in China anytime it wants.
I lived in eastern Europe
Submitted by Botecelli (not verified) on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 11:53 AM PDT.
I lived in eastern Europe for some 10 years - Romania and Bulgaria - and almost everyone I knew believed the CIA was behind each and every major geo-political event. I'm sure the people at Langley would be pleased to know that among some circles they are considered omniprescient supermen.
intervening into the internal politics of China
Submitted by tpx on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 12:29 PM PDT.
From F. William Engdahl
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14327
"After the tragic events of July 5 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, it would be useful to look more closely into the actual role of the US Government’s ”independent“ NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All indications are that the US Government, once more acting through its “private” Non-Governmental Organization, the NED, is massively intervening into the internal politics of China."
Every Ron Paul supporter knows that the NWO/Illuminati runs the world. From creating earthquakes in China to running the world drug trade its all run by a couple of bulbous brained evil Rabbis in Jerusalem. Obama just waits by the phone every morning for his orders. This is all funded by the Federal Reserve. Just wait, the culling of the herd is coming.
made me laugh
Submitted by Nat on Mon Jul. 13, 2009 4:17 PM PDT.
The first comment about oil in Ghana brought back an old memory.
Back in '75 I was working geophysical data processing on a shoot off Angola when the country fell into civil war with Cuban mercenaries (!) running amuck. I had the boss call the client, one of the big outfits like Mobil, I forget who it was. I was about to do the really expensive processing that was done just before drilling and figured they might want to back off. The word came back: no problem. Within the year contracts were announced with whatever government happened to be calling the shots at the time.
Everything the President
Submitted by EthanJ (not verified) on Tue Jul. 14, 2009 12:30 AM PDT.
Everything the President does (or fails to do) sprays attention like a firehose, always on. Good or bad, there's going to be an effect. So of course we'd try to maximize our own benefit from that.
We're just not very good at it.
NED and other US special funds influenced the invasion of Iraq
Submitted by tpx on Tue Jul. 14, 2009 10:29 AM PDT.
From RON JACOBS
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs07142009.html
"An even closer connection between the NED funds and the group United for Iran is that of the apparent US organizer of the United for Iran rallies, Hadi Ghaemi. Mr. Ghaemi is is the director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. This group is a project of the Dutch Foundation for Human Security in the Middle East. More important as regards his NED connection is Ghaemi's role as a former board member of the National Iranian American Council, which has received over a quarter million dollars in NED grants. While this is not an indictment of the desire for greater freedoms in Iran expressed by Ghaemi and his organization, one would think these connections would give pause to a US antiwar group whose leadership knows only too well the role groups funded by the NED and other US special funds played in the period leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq."
