America is said to be on the verge of something called ‘isolationism’. The record, by contrast, tells us to expect another show of force in some remote trouble spot or other by mid-decade. Go with the record.
In 1993, a botched intervention in Somalia seemed to put the US off such projects for good. Three years later, it sent more than 16,000 troops to Bosnia. The failure to avert mass killings there revived the trope of a halfhearted superpower.
Three years later, it led the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The reluctance to commit ground forces there was final proof of an inward-turning nation. Four years later, it was occupying both Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Financial Times
Janan Ganesh is the principal political columnist for the Financial Times.
