Policy Brief: American Leadership: Not a Choice but a Must

Jason Lim

5/5/20

Introduction

Ever since the US led the global stage after the World War 2, the world seems to be at

its greatest moment of peace. However, beneath the surface lies an ongoing attempt by the

authoritarian governments to challenge the American leadership and reshape the world under

their oppressive, dystopian rule. China, especially, has been making more bold actions to

challenge the American leadership. To combat this, the Cold War with China has been going

on many forefronts, ranging from trade war to vaccine development for the COVID-19.

Given these threats, for the sake of sovereignty, democracy, and freedom of this world, the

American government should follow conservative foreign policies to counter the enemies and

maintain its role as a leader.

Areas to focus

1. Military Supremacy

Our military is, without a doubt, the strongest military that has ever existed.

Currently, the US has about 800 military bases around the globe. A lot of progressives point

out how excessive this number is and argue that we should significantly reduce this number.

However, these bases are all located in strategic areas that allow the US to be ready should it

be engaged in a conflict, small or big, ranging from air strikes to putting troops on the

ground.

This strategy is based on the military concept of “loss of strength gradient,” meaning

the further away a country is from the conflict zone, the less power it can bring to the fight.

The further a country is physically distanced away from the conflict zone, the more it will
cost in both time and money to make an appropriate measure to contain or suppress the

situation. Thus, these bases are located in the places they are for a good reason, and

significantly reducing their numbers would be irrational.

China, also aware of this concept, has been constantly looking to expand its military

and its influence. For example, it constantly tries to destabilize the power balance in the

South China Sea by sending aircraft carriers, artificially building islands for airstrips, and

conducting military exercises. Furthermore, China has been lurking to keep Africa under its

rule and got their first foreign military in Djibouti in 2015, marking their overtness in this

ambition. The expansion of Chinese military influence means less freedom, democracy, and

liberty, the same values that the US upholds and should protect.

Thus, the US should take several measures to counter these efforts. The US needs to

increase their military activities in those regions, using our military supremacy to our

advantage. China still significantly lacks behind in their military strength. For example, it

only has two aircraft carriers in service, both of which are technologically inferior. At the

least, we should more frequently have aircraft carriers deployed and practice military

exercises in the South China Sea region. In terms of Africa, the US needs to strengthen our

relationship with the leaders of the countries prone to falling under Chinese influence by

carrying both humanitarian and governmental support. Once China retracts, the US also

should actively make use of military bases in South Korea and Japan to contain China under

control.

2. Economic Independence

One of the biggest reasons China gained its strength is through its economic success.

However, their economic boom also came with gross human rights violation and

manipulation of the market to their advantage. The US and other nations, for too long, got

used to the unfair trading and slowly got more dependent on China’s economy. Indeed,
globalization and maintain close economic ties with other nations are crucial. However, this

unhealthy, unbalanced relationship between China and the US needs to stop. The more US

relies on Chinese economy, the more our possible options to counter China will be restricted.

To gain back the economic independence, the US needs to focus on diversifying its

trade partners, empowering other developing nations and sway their reliance away from the

Chinese economy. First, the US needs to reexamine and redefine its economic relationships

with China. Second, the US needs to identify other nations with the potential to grow in their

economy and strengthen the relationships with them, such as Vietnam, Pakistan, and India.

This will help prevent these nations fall under China’s sphere of influence. Third, with the

new established trade balances, the US will need to focus on maintaining the independence.

However, doing so will come at a significant cost, as the US will need to help block

or liberate countries with unfair economic deals with China. For example, Sri Lanka struck a

deal with a state-owned Chinese bank to build one of its major ports. This deal, however,

resulted in Sri Lanka handing over the governance of its port to China for 99 years. The port

now profits China. A similar deal happened in Pakistan and will occur without the US

intervention. The US should prevent such deals by making more reasonable investments that

will profit both nations, not just one. We must not forget that we will be investing in our

prosperous future as these measures will prove to be effective and beneficial longitudinally.

3. Guardian of Technology Development

The US also needs to focus on revamping its foreign policies to guard our

technological advances and information from getting into the wrong hands, such as China and

Russia. Furthermore, we need to secure our technology industry from foreign intervention

and/or manipulation. Russia meddled with our election, and China has been also using

various social media platforms to spread fake news to destabilize our domestic environment,

such as spreading rumors about locking down the whole country during the COVID
pandemic. The US should not tolerate these acts and needs to take strong, determined steps:

impose sanctions against their tech companies, launch investigations in these sectors, and

publicly denounce their gross actions.

Furthermore, we are also on a race against China on making technological

advancements on many ends, including developing a vaccine for COVID-19. But be aware;

China is well known for copying and exploiting on other nations’ technology and ideas. Thus,

the US needs to protect not only ours but also other nations’ intellectual properties, creating a

safe competitive global market. This will help set example of our technological supremacy

while showing our virtues that uphold moral high grounds.

Conclusion

American leadership is not an option but a must. Without it, the world will eventually

fall into the hands of a dictator, who will deprive the world from freedom, liberty, and

democracy. To stop this, we must learn from history. The Soviet Union after practically

conceding to the US, has fallen into a slump and will most likely never see its glory again.

Though their demise, and the US’s leadership, resulted in a world of peace and prosperity, the

fall of the US and the rise of China would only bring a dystopic society. Thus, we must not

make naïve assumptions that the sly and immoral Chinese government will listen to us with

weak foreign policy. Through the means of military, economy, and technology, it’s time to

assert our strong foreign policy.