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The mood will be tense; get used to it
Nov 22nd 2010 | from The World In 2011 PRINT EDITION
Over the past two years, the world’s biggest economies have grappled with the threat of a new Great Depression. During the course of 2011, it will e clear that the global economic crisis has also soured international politics.
The political malaise is linked to the economic crisis. Twenty years of good times and global economic integration, after the end of the cold war, had profound political effects. They created a “win-win world” which ensured that all the major powers had reason to be satisfied. The United States was enjoying its “unipolar moment”; the European Union was expanding and prospering; China and India felt themselves getting richer and more powerful.
But the global economic crisis has changed the logic of international relations. Both as individuals and as a nation, Americans have begun to question whether the
“new world order” that emerged after the cold war still favours the United States. The rise of China is increasingly associated with job losses for ordinary Americans and a challenge to American power. The European Union is also in a defensive mood—with protectionist and anti-immigration sentiment on the rise and tensions between the nations that have adopted the European single currency.
The result of this change in mood is that, after