'The Madmen' throw another stone

A madman throws a stone into a well... You know the rest. Sometimes madmen gather and throw stones into the well together. Forget forty wise men; even if all the nations of the world came together, they could not get the stones out. Some of these madmen (or should we call them ''wise''?) include: Samuel Huntington, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Francis Fukuyama, Colin L. Powell, Hillary Clinton, Donald Rumsfeld... And there are many more. One of the environments where this wise team gathers is the magazine Foreign Affairs.

?Samuel Huntington's famous 1993 article ''The Clash of Civilizations'' comes from this very magazine. George Kennan's 1947 article, also published in this magazine under the pseudonym ''X'', could be called the creator of the policy of containment of the USSR. Foreign Affairs is a magazine that everyone who wants to capture, predict, and change the global agenda should take a look at. The magazine is published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

?In the July/August 2025 issue of the magazine, an article titled ''The End of the Long American Century – Trump and the Sources of U. S. Power'' was published under the byline of famous international relations experts Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye Jr.

?Do not look at the title of the article and think, ''Oh, what virtuous men, they see their own end.'' The article's concern is to hold the Trump-Pentagon administration, which refuses to be the driving force of globalization, responsible for this collapse.

?Some of the authors' claims are true. Globalization did indeed fill the sails of the US. Dollar hegemony did indeed boost the US's financial power. ''Human rights and democratic'' rhetoric did indeed serve as the US's soft power. Based on these claims, the authors argue that the current administration is squandering these opportunities.

?However, there were problems in the wave that lifted the US and in the backbone that has been worn down by this wave for years. World politics has changed because these problems have come to light and multipolarity has emerged from the explosion points of globalization. The Trump-Pentagon administration is merely an attempt at a solution in favor of productive capital. The authors of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, blame the Trump-Pentagon administration for what is happening because they act as spokespeople for financial capital rather than productive capital.

?According to them, the US is losing its power because the US's straining of alliances, devaluation of international institutions, damage to its scientific and cultural capacity, abandonment of human rights and democracy support, and rejection of the beneficial aspects of globalization are eroding the US's leadership role.

?The authors of the article deftly eliminate the reasons for the rise of right-wing populism and make them scapegoats. However, the rise of right-wing populism is the result of the misery created by globalization at various global explosion points, intense migration, and the destruction of the security networks of nation-states. Right-wing populism is the intra-systemic version of the reaction against these. The authors of the article essentially say: ''Populist leaders (including Trump) are promoting protectionist and nationalist policies by pointing to globalization and migration as the cause of economic problems. This weakens global cooperation and the US's network-centric advantage.''

?Globalization and migration are indeed the causes of social explosion. And those who fill their sails with this explosion are the right-wing populists. But why was this explosion risked? Who came out on top in this process? At what cost were nation-states thrown into the fire?

?The issue that the authors of the article insist on is that ''interdependence'' must be maintained. Of course, this is the most important pillar of finance capital. There must be interdependence so that the financial system can win in the spiral of capital export, indebtedness, and crisis. This is the dream that US Democrats see in their deep sleep. The authors are very saddened that the apparatuses used to decorate this dream with leftist sauces and humanitarian rhetoric to explain that this system is for everyone's benefit have run out of money. That is why they essentially say: The US's cultural power of attraction was built on democratic values and institutions. The Trump administration's withdrawal from international organizations, pushing human rights and democracy rhetoric into the background, and weakening science and education institutions are eroding this soft power.

?I wish they would produce something original for once. Decades have passed, and they are still going around in circles, trying to glorify their rotten theories with veiled references. In the article, they have used the subheading ''the specter of globalism.'' They are referring to the ''specter of communism'' in Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto. That specter may still be wandering somewhere. But millions of people all over the world are cursing globalization.