Watching Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act surely does make us rethink the idea of the American state and its pledge to freedom. However, for us Georgians, the political way we have chosen to pursue internationally is the only right choice. In this article, I will combine a few facts and figures to prove the point, regardless of having myself downloaded and watched all episodes of Patriot Act.
The U.S. governmental and nongovernmental actors do not take spontaneous trips to Moscow to apologize to Orthodox Communists for defending their nation’s parliament. On the contrary, every step they take is following specific collections of goals, values and interests, which are together covered under the U.S. foreign policy. America still exerts the utmost global impact in the world today. Although it is home to less than 5% of the global population, the scale of its economy is spectacular along with its military realm and well-practiced trade relationships with all favorable partners. Just to give an idea about the economic might of the mighty: it is not only one of the world’s largest economies but also the largest trading state with the largest volume of foreign direct investment (FDI). What about military power, one might say; look at Russia, one might say. Well, referencing Patriot Act again, we will awkwardly blush because of all the wrongdoings of big players in the world and then fondly mention that the U.S. has the highest military spending, is the largest military exporter of arms and training, and ‘command of the commons’ (sea, space, and air) is also worth mentioning. Yet, this is not a propaganda piece.
Steven W. Hook, who wrote my very expensive college book 'The U.S. Foreign Policy Paradox of Power,' identifies four key challenges to foreign policymaking in the U.S.: cycles in the balance of power, poor historical experiences, resistance to globalization and terrorism and asymmetric warfare. All of the above pose a threat if we also take into consideration the national security priorities in the 2017 National Security Strategy of Trump administration. On the other hand, real-time threats like terrorism, trafficking, chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons, transnational criminal organizations and non-terrorist, non-state actors somewhat justify Trump’s clinginess to the idea of the American homeland.
In the country where in 2019 there are talks about whether or not we need the Russian cultural center in the capital city, we can do not much but hope that the aspirations of Pillar IV Advance American Influence of NSS will reach us in the most absorbing way possible. Let’s follow the wise words of the Count of Monte Cristo and ‘wait and hope’ that we will be the aspiring partner country, in which America is willing to proliferate its values (just the good ones).
