67
The coronavirus ThaT now poses a dire ThreaT To public healTh
and to the world economy is so dangerous partly because it is novel—a
new harm t hat o ur bodies a nd o ur governments must l earn t o face. But
it i s a lso a reminder o f a l esson we s hould h ave l earned l ong a go: t hat, t o
thrive, people of every nationality must combine strengths.
There is something childish about the belief that one can be safe behind
a wall, a moat or even an ocean. The principal threats we face, even beyond
pandemic disease, do not respect boundaries. They include rogue gov-
ernments, terrorists, cyberwarriors, the uncontrolled spread of advanced
weapons, multinational
criminal networks and en-
vironmental catastrophe.
It was for good reason
that world leaders strove
in d ecades p ast to establish
regional and global mech-
anisms to spur develop-
ment, prevent war, promote
health, regulate trade and
prosecute crimes against
humanity. The institutions
created were often less effi-
cient than one might hope.
But they also helped us re-
solve dangerous conflicts
and make unprecedented
gains in, among other mis-
sions, alleviating poverty, expanding literacy and containing the ravages
of diseases from polio and yellow fever to HIV/AIDS and Ebola.
This record is worth reflecting on at a time when most powerful national
governments are not prioritizing international cooperation. That includes
the idea’s traditional champion: the U.S. From its first months, the Trump
Administration has claimed that “the world is not a ‘global community’ but
an a rena where n ations, n ongovernmental actors and businesses engage
and c ompete for advantage,” as two Trump advisers wrote in 2017. In the
President’s vocabulary, patriots a nd gl obalists a re o n o pposite e nds o f the
spectrum— corresponding, respectively, to right-minded and softheaded.
In such thinking, Trump is not alone. Hypernationalist leaders around
the g lobe seem determined to ignore the awareness of interdependence
that was—in the past century—drummed into our minds at a nearly un-
bearable cost. Such leaders go beyond the expression of legitimate national
pride into jingoism, which is defined as an overenthusiastic insistence on
the superiority of a particular culture or country. Self-regard is inflated
into feelings that are disdainful of others. In the process, recognition of the
need to cooperate with those outside one’s own group is blurred.
In the 1930s, jingoism enjoyed its golden age. As the League of Nationsbegan to fall apart, Japan invaded Manchuria; Italy
overran Ethiopia; and Germany annexed Austria,
attacked Czechoslovakia and joined the Soviet
Union in carving up Poland. The ensuing slaughter
continued until 1945, when World War II ended and
the horrors of the Holocaust were finally exposed.
That was 75 years ago—long enough, evidently,
for our collective memory to slip. The deficit in
cross-border diplomacy is evident in Libya, Yemen,
Syria and terrorism-plagued Central Africa. The
Trump Administration has loosened the shackles
on Iran’s nuclear program and failed to stop North
Korea’s. In Latin America, hard-line leaders threaten
to haul the region back to the days when autocrats
ruled and democrats were routinely jailed.There is a real danger that our future will be
defined by clashes that could have been avoided.
Look around: Where are the leaders who will re-
mind us of our mutual obligations and s hared fate?
In Moscow? Beijing? London?
Rome? Paris? New Delhi? An-
kara? In Berlin, Chancellor An-
gela Merkel is on the way out.
That leaves Washington.
In t he U.S. , p undits a re fond
of declaring, every four years,
that the next election is the
most important since George
Washington put away his hair
powder. T his t ime a round i s n o
different. I can’t be sure what
historians will say about the
balloting in 2020. I do know
that a huge gap has opened be-
tween what the international
community needs and the re-
ality now in place. The size of
this gap represents a failure
on the part of leaders on every
continent who would rather
win cheap cheers at home than
run the political risk of tack-
ling hard problems abroad. But it reflects, as well, a
vacuum at the top that only the U.S. can fill.
This t roubled spring, as we sit at home for lon-
ger periods than usual, let us think about what the
coronavirus is telling us and consider with c are the
choices we face. We can learn from history or repeat
it. We can embrace our international responsibili-
ties or go it alone. We can settle for the leadership
we have endured these past few years or, when we
vote this year, look for a President who understands
how inseparable our fate is from that of the world.Albright is a former U.S. Secretary of State and the
author of Hell and Other DestinationsGOING IT ALONE
ISN’T AN OPTION
^
PHOTO12/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
UWR.Ackerman.Albright.indd 67 3/25/20 4:13 PM