US president Barack Obama’s final state of the union address was rife with contradictory statements about global security and America’s place in the world. In the speech, interpreted as Mr Obama’s closing statement on his presidential legacy, he argued that ISIL didn’t pose a threat to America’s national existence while at same time noting that the global order is decaying. In the past, Mr Obama downplayed ISIL by describing the group as a “junior varsity” team.
The ISIL threat will ultimately be removed. But the international order, set up after the second World War with the United States serving as the global policeman, is struggling under the weight of failed states and America’s new-found introspection. At this time of global instability perpetuated by extremists like ISIL, the United States doesn’t have the luxury to retreat within its borders and abandon the system of order that it helped create and maintained for decades.
The ability of global extremists to conduct attacks from Indonesia to Turkey and France confirms that groups like ISIL see a world without borders. This is at a time when the European Union is busy reconstructing borders dissolved with the knowledge that countries like the United States would maintain some semblance of international stability.
The major contradiction in Mr Obama’s speech was the notion that US military power alone will prevent ISIL’s long reach from penetrating the American heartland. If the US continues to let the international system of order to fall apart, no amount of firepower will ensure American security. As such, America mustn’t turn its back on its role as global guarantor of peace. Under Mr Obama’s watch, this reality has been largely ignored. From the conflict in Ukraine, the Syrian civil war, the rise of ISIL, the instability in the South China Sea and North Korea’s expanding weapons programme, America has let too many flashpoints spiral out of control. Diplomacy, as in the case of Iran, certainly has its place but Washington can’t afford to turn its back on the world.
