A Global Power

Is The World Ready For Us? It most certainly is not. The United States sits complacently on its laurels, believing that there will be no challenge to its superiority until China matures in about eighty years. Until then, it believes that 'rogue states' are its main problem. Enter The Realms. The fact that no one is expecting us means that we can truly upset the world order. As one would have noted on the preceding four pages, we actually are the leading states in a number of areas, and together have the second most internationally capable forces. Even more important than all those figures is that the world (except America) will broadly welcome us. This is because, quite unlike America, we are not isolationist, but engaging. Time and time again over the last five years, the Realms have proven to be more involved with the world than America. While the U.S. wrings its hands, we do the dirty work. Look at Sierra Leone. We went in and prevented a Freetown blood bath. Our mere presence was a deterrent. Look at the leading role we played in Kosovo, and the Sterling performance in East Timor where once again we were a detterent, and never even had to fight a major battle (contrast these astounding recognitions of power with the American disaster in Somalia). In Macedonia, the largest contingent is once again The Realms, while like in East Timor, the Americans will fulfill a shady background role of 'communications' and 'logistics'. We are fulfilling all these roles, despite having a smaller capability than America. We also conduct a number of humanitarian missions, such as the Mozambique floods, where we deployed faster and in greater numbers than America. Another reason the world will broadly welcome us is that, unlike America, we are not afraid of multi-lateralism, or international treaties. Note the following, which all occurred in a two week period: 178 countries voted in favour of a global-warming treaty, with the United States alone in dissent 148 countries pushed to move forward with enforcement measures to ban germ warfare, despite American objections. But other American positions in the last five years have led to a growing frustration with America: America owes the United Nation billions of dollars in overdue fees it has refused to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty it has not signed the Landmines convention nor has it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child it is one of only two nations where it is still legal to execute juveniles (the other being Somalia) and it has indicated that it is willing to break the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty regardless of whether other countries agree or not. [If you know of any more, please send an e-mail to newinfo@thealliance.8m.net] In light of this, it is clear that if there was ever a time for The Realms to unite, it is now. The world needs a power that it respects and yet at the same time talk to. The policy of the Bush administration, whereby it seeks concensus, but only if that concensus endorses the Administration's position, reeks of 'unilateralism', and many countries resent that. But as many American journalists gloat, the world will have to like it or lump it. Except that as noted earlier, no one is counting on us. America is thinkig only in terms of the E.U., Japan, Russia and China. As it knows too well, the E.U. is inward looking, and is mainly concerned with expansion into eastern Europe. What is more, there are too many conflicting opinions among the countries of Europe (only fifty six years ago, they fought a war among themselves, and for much of the time since were drained by the Cold War). So the E.U. is discounted. Japan is mainly an economic power, albeit one that has been in recession for ten years. Like the E.U., Japan is limited overseas because of the size and structure of its armed forces. Japan also has a constitutional provision forbidding the activity of Japanese forces on foreign territory. Russia is a fallen power. Its economy has shrunk fifty percent in ten years. Like the E.U. and Japan, it is not strong enough to project power. Its only claim to fame is a decrepit and rotting arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, which are of absolutely no use in day to day military operations. And it is not as if there is ever going to be a nuclear war again. All the nuclear powers are too afraid to use them. China is a long way from being a global player. It has a large, but creaky and obsolecent military. Its nuclear weapons are also of no consequence, because of their primitive nature, and the fact that they will never be used. Like all of the other powers dealt with, China lacks the ability to act overseas. China's economy is also insignificant: it only accounts for 3% of world trade, and a similiar percentage of world GDP. Many of China's factories are inefficient, and only produce products which end up rotting in warehouses, because of the need to keep the workforce employed. Politically, China is isolated as one of the few remaining communist regimes, and a gross violator of human rights (it executes more people than the rest of the world combined). So America considers itself to be the leader of the world for a long time. If The Realms were to come together, we would have many of the characteritics that the other potential powers lack: We have economies which are tied to all regions of the world. we therfore run a global economy We have massive air and sea lift capabilities, nuclear weapons, and competent first class armed forces deployable on short notice, as we have shown on mission after mission in the last few years: We thus have a global military And we do not have much of the world ganging up against us on a myriad of issues like the Unites States. We are good contributing members of the United Nations, and have a permament seat on the U.N. Security Council. We are obviously a global political player. We also benefit in that many of our states are developing countries (though not impoverished ones), like much of the rest of the world, and that gives us a special perspective of global issues, and makes the developing world much more receptive to us, as we understand the unique issues confronting them. The United States may not be ready for us, but the rest of the world certainly are, and there is little doubt of who they would prefer: the global inter-active power, or the isolationist superpower? For that is what we are. We in The Realms are a multicultural GLOBAL power, which engages with the world. The respect that we have earned individually from the rest of the world cannot be attained overnight, and this America will find out the hard way, if we in The Realms do decide to unite our energies and the world respect that we have earned by being involved in more U.N. missions than any single country.

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