Exactly how the American empire manages to survive the problems at home is hard to pinpoint. It helps that voters are so indifferent to foreign affairs, a subject that almost never decides federal elections. This lack of interest is too often assumed to be a drag on US power. In fact, it liberates the nation’s (geo) political class to operate in relative calm. On healthcare and crime, politicians must pander to their half of a riven electorate. On foreign matters, there is nothing like the same passion to satiate or exploit. Reinforcing this barrier between “high” and “low” politics is a constitution that cloisters foreign policy from the domestic. Even a president who cannot get a bill through Congress has wide latitude as commander-in-chief of history’s mightiest armed forces.
The result is a highly “sticky” empire. Except through the pressure of bankruptcy — see postwar Britain — it is extraordinarily hard to pare back a global web of military bases and security guarantees, once it is woven. Bureaucratic inertia, logistical nuisance, vested interests and national ego make sure of that. Donald Trump, who never saw a foreign commitment he didn’t begrudge, achieved no meaningful cut in America’s global presence in four years as president.
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