We live in a chaotic world without superpowers

Post-American Age is the title of a book by CNN Fared Zechariah journalist published in 2011, in which the author explained that the world's change was not due to an alleged decline in the United States, but because of the “building of others “, namely China, India and so on. The US leadership, Zechariah explained, continued in all spheres: economic, technological, military, and political.

Almost a decade after the publication, after four years of the presidency of Trump, Zechariah can give another meaning to the title of his book. While the “the growth of others” is still visible (particularly China's), the United States has made a relative attraction to global issues. It is not a matter of isolation, but of one-sided commitment that has changed the nature of international relations.

The post-American world, the 2020 version, is a world without unequivocal guidance. Of course, there is no more <x0Hiperpower” that former French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrian talked about after the end of the Cold War and the 1990s, nor gendars everywhere on all continents. It all started with Barack Obama and his refusal to intervene in Syria in 2014, and was accelerated by Donald Trump.

This absence of leadership has favoured the appearance of a multipolar world. The problem is that this world no longer knows common rules, and it is emerging increasingly chaotic.

Trump changed the nature of the United States world leadership. The president accepts neither faith nor law, knows past agreements and has become unpredictable and irrational.

As if that were not enough, he sets a bad example in doing just what his opposers are blaming: He ignores international commitments when he volts, not to mention the contempt he has toward democratic operation, which we see every day as we approach the November 3rd elections. The American example and gentle power, which is the basis of American domination, have been markedly weakened.

Will Washington's withdrawal end with Trump's mandate? Absolutely not. In the past, experts have considered the Trump presidency as a “axid”, but today they are aware that the president, in his own way, epitomized a fundamental trend, a long-standing “poque of non-admination”, to quote the words of a French politician.

A post-American world does not mean that the United States has disappeared or been pulled and stuck within its borders, but that their outlook has changed. This phenomenon will remain very real even if the Democrat Joe Biden wins.

For all others, starting with us Europeans, this situation raises an existential question after decades of living under the American umbrella. The Europeans' awareness of this new world has been slow, but it has happened, even if there is a tide in Paris for relief that can bring about a eventual victory by Joe Biden, a president more presentable than Trump.

Despite the elections, the post-American world will last long, perhaps in different forms. This forces us to question our role in the new world, which has become much less friendly than in the past. / France Inter World.al