Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua
BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. politicians revel in branding their country as an "indispensable" global leader, and with lofty slogans, empty talk and deadly bombs, they constantly remind other nations who is the decision-maker. Given the global aspirations for peace and development, it is high time for US decision-makers to abandon their obsession with being the 'indispensable' leader and start behaving first and foremost as a responsible actor.
But with the 21st anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq and the risky third annual Washington-organised "Summit for Democracy", the world is once again realising that the so-called US "world leadership" is deep in the red.
For starters, in the face of international challenges, the United States has repeatedly failed to live up to the responsibilities commensurate with the role it claims to play. Instead, they typically use their dominant position to advance their hegemonic interests.
Take climate change as an example. At a time when the whole world is mobilising to tackle this existential threat to humanity, the self-proclaimed world leader, which is also the biggest air polluter in human history, is setting a bad example by failing to ratify major multilateral environmental agreements and dragging its feet on commitments to climate finance and green technology transfer.
Another illustration is the ongoing heartbreaking crisis in the Gaza Strip. Washington is prioritising its geopolitical calculations and has repeatedly vetoed draft UN Security Council resolutions that could have brought a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
This "America First" mindset is also evident in the financial and economic spheres, where the United States exploits the world to satisfy its hegemonic greed and fuel the massive apparatus it needs to support its dominance.
History is replete with examples of Washington exploiting the dollar's dominance in global trade to transfer its crises to emerging markets and developing countries, stifle the technological development of other countries in the name of national security, and sabotage international trade rules to benefit American businesses.
When it comes to global governance, the United States today likes to talk about a "rules-based international order". What they are doing, however, is leading the international community to an increasingly clear understanding of what this phrase really means.
"It's actually a different version of power politics. It is an attempt to impose one's will and norms on others and to replace commonly accepted international laws and rules with one's own internal rules," said Italian international relations expert Giancarlo Elia Valori.
And the so-called "Summit for Democracy", a Washington-driven plan whose third edition recently concluded in South Korea, has been widely criticised as an attempt to divide the world and provoke confrontation within the camp, giving credence to US President Joe Biden's assertion that "American leadership is what holds the world together".
The list of US actions incompatible with the "world leader" award could go on and on. It points to a superpower that is manoeuvring to maintain its privileges but whose credibility has collapsed at a time when, as the American economist Jeffrey Sachs has noted, the global landscape is evolving towards multipolarity and the West's dominance is waning.
In the light of global aspirations for peace and development, it is high time that US decision-makers abandon their obsession with being an "indispensable" leader and start behaving primarily as a responsible actor.
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