This choice, however, is beyond our leadership. No President could convince America to do what it would take to reduce oil dependency in time to preserve our standard of living; the American people will only be convinced by events, whose appearance will come too late for us to react deftly.

So some things are just inevitable:

1) We will continue on our current course (plus or minus a few percent), with regard to energy consumption and lifestyle.

2) We’ll spend our military and monetary strength on trying to secure our access to oil. This will further strain our economy and unity, and only delay the inevitable.

3) An energy crisis will hit, in the forms of fuel unavailability from time to time and place to place, local governments facing higher costs and lower tax revenues which make them unable to afford infrastructure maintenance, and grinding recession.

4) After years of unnecessary suffering, we’ll start the hard work of changing how we consume and live. We’ll have to accept that we need to consume less, not just consume differently.

I think leverage is important when dealing with truly international issues like global warming. But otherwise, why should we (and by “we” I mean we the people and not our elected officials and thinktank “scholars”) care if we set the agenda on every issue in every corner of the world?

I so much prefer Khanna’s view to Huntington’s clash. I don’t want to be stuck in that clash. I would not deny it, but I would not want to crystallize it either. We can get beyond. The idea of getting to know and embracing the differences, different ways of organizing society which may be more effective than ours is a more appealing vision. I want to see the Brazilian way, the Turkish Way….

This fall and winter my international travel has been to NYCity, the long cab rides to see my mother. I have come to enjoy conversation with the drivers. On the last trip just a couple of weeks ago one driver was from Jordan. He had a smile and very good English; been here 10 years, raising his children.

The area of Brooklyn in which my mother lives is teeming with Russian immigrants – a wave of them came here when the USSR folded in the early 90′s. My driver on the way back was born in Siberia-here 18 years. He seemed open to make contact, as he labored to get me through a nerve-wracking traffic jam to the station. He spoke of 55 degrees below zero in Siberia this winter- everything closed.

I am always reminded of my grandparents coming here 100 years ago on a crowded ship from the shtetls of Russia via the port of Hamburg to Ellis Island, their beginning, living in the tenements, working in the garment industry.

I would also like appreciate more details on how he classifies Canada in this worldview. A case could be made that it’s really lumped with the EU, but I can certainly see an argument that it’s another second world player. I’d like to know what he thinks.

“Europe’s influence grows at America’s expense. While America fumbles at nation-building, Europe spends its money and political capital on locking peripheral countries into its orbit.”

There are a couple problems with Khanna’s view of transatlantic relations:

First, fumbling at nation building is just as much a European activity as it is an American one. Several European countries are involved in or are leading major nation building projects – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, etc. If anything, a more powerful and centralized EU would benefit the United States because it could contribute more effectively to these operations. Instead, the US is working with a hodge-podge of allies, each with varying levels of commitment and each demanding their own say at the table. What a pain.

Furthermore, Europe “locking peripheral countries into its orbit” does not hurt the United States. If anything, the higher human rights and rule of law standards required to join the EU makes these countries more stable, and therefore better strategic and economic partners for the United States.

Overall, Khanna has described a zero-sum relationship between the United States and Europe that is overstated.

See full commentary on this here:

http://www.atlanticreview.org/archives/981-Parag-Khanna-Europes-Influence-Grows-at-Americas-Expense.html