PARIS (AP) – For US allies and rivals, the chaos of Donald Trump’s last days as president is the logical result of four years of man-made global instability that has promised to change the way the world views the United States. .
From the outside, the United States has never been so vulnerable – or unpredictable.
Alliances that have been maintained for generations have disintegrated to a point of rupture under Trump – from his decision to renounce the Paris climate agreement and the Iranian nuclear deal, to the renunciation of the World Health Organization on the background of a pandemic.
And then, in an attempt to undo his loss to Joe Biden, Trump overturned the basic principle of democratic elections that the United States has tried – and sometimes even succeeded – in exporting around the world. How long those lines could last is unclear.
“It is one of the biggest tasks of the future for America and Europe – to fight the polarization of society at its roots,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. “We will be able to keep faith in the community, in democracy as the most humane form of statehood and belief in science and reason, if we do it together.”
But in many ways, Europe has already continued, continuing with the agreement with Iran, negotiating a trade agreement with China led by Germany and organizing global actions to protect the environment.
On the same day, an angry mob stormed the Chapter to try to overthrow the presidential election won by Biden, a record number of Americans died of coronavirus. Another recent event also showed the vulnerability of the USA: the cyber espionage operation is still carried out through a huge number of government computers and blamed Russian elite hackers.
World leaders who have seen deadly violence in Washington will need to consider whether these events are an abnormal event – a “black swan” – or whether these extremist white supremacist groups will continue to be a significant influence. in the direction of US foreign and domestic policy, instead of retiring with the end of the Trump administration, “the Soufan group, a global intelligence and security firm, wrote on Tuesday.
People tend to think of fragile countries “in terms of war as the biggest problem, rather than violence, and thinking in terms of state collapse as the biggest problem, rather than internally disintegrating states.” said Rachel Kleinfeld, a scholar of democracy and violence at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Kleinfeld, like many others, said the assault on the US Capitol could have come to an end in a few weeks, but years have passed.
And the ability of the United States to fight for democracy has already been tarnished before the Trump-led crowd seeks to undo its electoral losses. For many, these events were just a confirmation.
Opponents, including Russia, China and Iran, have used violence to question US democracy more generally.
In an internal note on the “dissent channel” of the State Department obtained by The Associated Press, American diplomats said that Trump’s actions made it difficult for them. “It is essential to communicate to the world that in our system, no one – not even the president – is above the law or immune to public criticism,” the note said. “This would be a first step towards repairing the damage to our international credibility.”
However, Trump showed no contradiction, saying on Tuesday that his sharp remarks in front of supporters are “totally appropriate.”
In Iraq, a country still struggling with the controversial legacy of a US-led invasion in the name of democracy, many people watched the events in Washington with a mixture of shock and fascination.
Then US President George W. Bush boasted that Iraq would become a model of democracy in a region ruled by dictators. Instead, the country fell into a protracted war between Sunnis and Shiites, in which tens of thousands of people died. Although it has an active parliament and regular elections, it is a dysfunctional democracy based on a sectarian power-sharing agreement, with corrupt parties dealing with ministries and posts, so that it can give jobs to supporters, while covering their own pockets.
Ahmad al-Helfi, a 39-year-old Iraqi political cartoonist, said that what happened in the US chapter is a blow to democracy that he has tried to bring to Iraq and other countries.
“By mobilizing his followers in an effort to overturn the election results, Trump confirmed that instead of exporting democracy to Iraq, America imported chaos, the non-peaceful transition of power and the failure to accept the election results,” he said. al-Helfi.
Anahita Thoms, a German lawyer and trade expert who has spent years living and working in the United States, said last week’s events will erase America’s image abroad. Thoms is a board member of Atlantic Bridge, a think tank that promotes cooperation between Europe and the United States – the kind of organization founded after World War II, when the United States helped rebuild the economies of many Western European countries, which were destroyed by the war.
Germany was one of the countries that benefited most from those US financial and democratic efforts.
Looking ahead, she said US officials could have a harder time promoting democracy abroad.
“The United States remains a country that lives its democratic values. But this aspiration, which is very strongly presented to the outside world, must not have too many cracks “, said Thoms. “I think it will take a lot of diplomatic skill to counter these images.”
The international crisis group, which normally focuses on world war zones, has written its first ever assessment of the risk of election-related violence. in the United States in October. Stephen Pomper, who helped lead the report and lives in the DC area, said that in the best of circumstances, the United States could finally indicate Congress’ decision to resume certification of Biden’s election after the first violation in successfully protecting its democracy.
“Look, we created these institutions. They have become a source of resistance for us. They helped us get through this very difficult time. Let us help you develop the same kind of resistance, “he said, describing a hypothetical future conversation between the United States and a troubled government. “It would be a positive story to be able to tell at some point, but I don’t think the songs are still there.”
Pope Francis was more optimistic, telling Italian broadcaster Mediaset: “Thank God it exploded” outdoors because “I could see why this is and how it can be remedied.”
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Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber and Frank Jordans in Berlin, Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad, Matt Lee in Washington; and Frank Bajak of Boston contributed.