Opinion | How American hubris is hastening the decline of US-led global order

As Washington tries to contain both Russia and China, it faces an increasingly war-weary Europe and a developing world reluctant to take sides

America’s own social and political rifts and broken infrastructure are causing some to question its entitlement for calling the shots in an increasingly multipolar world

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Published: 9:45am, 25 Jul 2022

Defending its global hegemony, the United States is now fighting a global war on two fronts, against Russia and China simultaneously.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has refocused his Ukraine military strategy on the Donbas region and on creating a “land bridge” to Russia-occupied Crimea. He is turning the Ukraine war into a contest of attrition, threatening to last a couple of years, if not much longer.

Speaking to Foreign Policy, Fiona Hill, a top Russia adviser to three US presidents, urged the world not to buy Moscow’s claims that it would outlast the West in Ukraine, mindful of societal hardships in the country and Putin’s hopes of a 2024 re-election.

However, Andrei Kolesnikov from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that the Russian people have generally adapted to the new reality over Ukraine, and remain ideologically supportive of Putin.

Meanwhile, the initial enthusiaism with which Europe rallied around US leadership is beginning to wane. Energy and food shortages are kicking in, amid broken supply chains, raising the spectre of inflation levels not seen in decades.

A poster at a bus stop in Moscow shows Uncle Sam, a popular symbol of the US government, with the words “Don’t be a toy in the wrong hands”, on July 20. Photo: EPA-EFE

US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia did not bring meaningful relief as the stable-supply policies of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) remain sacrosanct. Europe could expect gas rationing this winter.