Blow in welcome to cross stock where all things are considered im Peter Lavelle has a so called American Century come to an end. If so, how did it come about . Was it poor leadership or the mission to lead the world itself was always destined to fail and what follows the end of the American Century . Aah crow sucking the end of the American Century, im joined by my guess peter cousin, akin. Bethesda. Hes a professor of history and director of the nucular studies institute at American University as well as co author, with all the persona of the untold history of the United States. In istanbul, we have pepe escobar. Hes an independent geopolitical analyst and author specializing in eurasia. And in callaway, across the jama baraka, he is a National Organizer for the black alliance for peace or a gentleman. Crosstalk rules in effect, that means you can jump anytime you want. And i always appreciate peggy, let me go to you. I mean that this is bait is program is kind of based on this article by David Preston are in harpers magazine and it was the title of the article was empire burlesque. And it kind of said a lot of shockwave, lot of people really kind of surprised me, but i dont think anybody on this panel would be surprised by it whatsoever. And i found it really quite amusing that this was such a bold article and you know, and you know, it, it, it is a and a critique of the, of the elite and all that. I thought it was a good chronology, but he didnt say anything that was particularly interesting or new. Go ahead, pepe. Wow, this is a mediocre se. Mediocre asked for mediocre readers in america. You know, the best writers in across the erasure russians. Chinese iranians, pakistan. These indians across latin america, the best brazilians, argentinean 0. Bryans across africa. Well, they have been writing about this in detail for over 10 years now. If not, since the meet to thousands at the height of the war on terror. Basically, we all know that the free lunch that lasted for 75 years is older. So we are now discussing whats gonna happen next, of course. And you just need to take a look at whats happening at the s seal some. Busy in september in summer, what happened at the breaks summit in beijing a few weeks ago . What happened after the run 3 part by some its the again why easy and putting in that on this week . This is, why are we going the interaction of all of these institutions across eurasia, towards what the russians themselves have called greater eurasia partnership, but its bigger than eurasia. Its, i would say its, you know, youll wrap freak asia as well. Lets bring africa to it. And lets bring less than america. Its is the new world. Its been, its absolutely. I agree with peter. If the, if i could read a quick fragment from the article here are, well, we doom to witness the return of great power rivalry in which the United States in china, bye for influence. Or will that a decline of the us per produce novel forms of International Collaboration kind of dovetailing on what peppy has to say, is it, is this even an important question anymore . I mean, i that, that, you know, because really the, the way the, this article is written about american leads, should we lament the end of the American Century or not . I mean, i dont even think thats a question anymore. And i think this is what this mindset is all about. The world is moving on and the us has to find its place in it. Thats probably a better way of putting it go ahead. Peter of biden came to power, saying that he was going to restore our american aj emily after the trump years. And he was going to unite the europeans behind the americans. And i says, is going to provide leadership to the world. And we see how well thats worked out, situation internationally has only gotten worse in the past 2 years. And the reason why we cant allow this kind of bifurcation, this kind of division is because were facing existential crises with dealing with the climate is the most obvious while now as the, as europe is burning, as the runways are melting and london, i as the fires this, this, the heat wave people are dying. Its only going to get worse, only going to get much, much worse. And were facing an existential crisis because of the nuclear threat. The west is committed, europeans in the United States are committed to defeating russia. Even though they themselves say, many leaders understand that if they succeeded and made potent desperate, then russia would likely resort to nuclear weapons, which would again potentially precipitate the end of life on the planet. So we data position will have the luxury to sit back and allow the 2 sides with their insular views and backward notions to destroy our planet. So are facing a serious crisis right now. American hegemony isnt as, as already, and it even Charles Krauthammer in 1090 proud hammer. Now this is americas unipolar moment, right in 2002. He says i was wrong. This is a unit poly iraq sack last 30 or 40 years like i thought its going to last indefinitely. But by 2006, even krauthammer, after the devils in iraq and afghanistan, even krauthammer, had to admit that the american unipolar moment and unipolar erode, were a fantasy. So weve known this oliver stone and i wrote about this extensively and unfold history and my other colleagues on the show been writing about this, talking about it for years. The question is, how do we prevent this from turning into the crisis that ends life on our planet . A jumbo. I think its really interesting um, noting what peter and peppy have already said here is it cant, can the world survive america reckoning . That is a lot longer the hedge amount, i mean, this is what it really gets down to because it, so in session was the political leads in the United States. And the, the, it is so narrow the definition of how they see their place in the world. Its either all or, or theyll be chaos again. This article was very light headed in the way i look at it is because it doesnt look at the, the reality is playing out on the ground and is peppy said here the world is moving on. And the u. S. S the find its place in it, and thats something that americans cant contemplate because of american exceptionalism, which well talk about later. Go ahead and cali or, you know, of heated youre absolutely right. The other commenters are spot on the money. The basically what we have is at the u. S. The lead on able to, to excel the new political reality. They seem to be committed to their notion of full spectrum dominance no matter what the conditions are. And it seems that they are prepared to basically blow up the world in order to maintain the dominance of the, of the european project. And thats why we say to david this, this represents the existential threat to collective global. You manage that theres a pathological commitment on the part of the, of the white west, if you will, or to maintain global hegemony is putting all of us a threat. And that basically, unless and until we able to ship power from the u. S. U natal project. All of us are facing the possibility of a global catastrophe. Well, peppy, i mean what, what is driving this here . I mean, from the west, there is an ideological for you. Is it just economic a gemini . Because i always, i tend to fall back on the sense of american exceptionalism, that they, the american elite. And he talks about here, liberal intervention is versus restraints, which i think is a joke because both camps, it, if you want to say they believe in american exceptionalism. And that is the Great Barrier to accept the fact that we are a pre ordained to run the world. That is something that is part of the american dna. How do they deal with it . Pepe. Well, in continental europe, its still the primacy of the ideas of the, like, this is something that we see, especially in france and new jersey. Yeah. But dont you know, peppy, dont you think they, that i think theyre actually in defiance of their own ideals. You know, sanctity, a problem to process freedom of speech. Ive still no, no they, its all, its all rubbish. Okay. I dont think they, they never did one with it on signing the enlightenment. Go ahead, pepe. Yeah. But they dont see it is that its amazing. I like i live between east and west as a lot of people know. I just came back from natal stand in france for almost 3 months and i arrived finished a move in. I feel relieved. I can have anita lecture dialogue in you stumble, which i tried many times to having paris and its absolutely impossible. And these people the know their enlightment by heart, but they simply dont see how their own ideals are melting nowadays. In the you case, different the okay, is it still a little bit of a white mans burden . Last and of course in america is in every cielo of intelligence or so called the power outage in us is about american exceptionalism. Its an extremely america centric view of the world, and we dont need to go back to live east coast to, to once again state that the americans are, as a rule of thumb simply cannot understand the other. And the problem is the other, which is basically the global south, which is 88 percent of the worlds population. Now they are finding an alternative model or alternative converging models. And they are trying to build literally a new system of International Relations for from the point of view. Busy of from an a gym monic point of view, either continental europe, yuki or america, or, and the collective west as oh, this is be owned anathema, this is the ultimate right. What is assumption that this one will never happen in history . But peter, this, this mindset when i call it american exceptionalism, but, i mean, and its eurocentric as well. And its untenable. I mean, its really amazing. You know, you look at europe right now because of whats going on ukraine, and they have an energy crisis, possible food crisis, their food banks here. And they still co, all these ideas that theyre the center of the world. Go ahead peter. Well they, in some ways they are still very, very relevant and very important. You know, we can discount the west when were looking at the future of humanity at this point. The problem is that theyre so short sighted take the case of biden, yet biden wants to weaken russia. He wants to punish russia. And in order to do so, he is effectively creating conditions in the u. S. And in much of the rest of the world that are going, especially in the us now, the big issue on peoples mind is inflation. The cost of living gas, housing, all these real concerns and what bidens policies are doing now in order to punish russia, is exacerbating that making it worse. Creating more suffering is Approval Ratings are in the low to mid thirtys right now. And what it is, effectively doing is saying hes willing to allow donald trump the republicans, the fascists. That climate on ires, pete apparently no blanche. Ive been here. I have to go to a hard break. And after that hard break, well continue our discussion on the end of the American Century, staying with our team ah so called enhanced interrogation techniques used by the u. S. Officials were basically designed as techniques to break down the human mind. If you force a human being to stay in a certain position doesnt take very long for the pain involved to become absolutely excruciating. But nobody screen finger on you. You are doing it to yourself. We started adopting those techniques when i was stationed in mosul. Among them were stress, possession, sleep deprivation. Inducing hypothermia. Theres already beginning to be evidence that these old techniques are now being used on immigrant children. Whatever you do or more comes from home. Nobody has been held accountable for the torture that happened in the past and the moral authority, the made america will sacrifice the shimmer of effective interrogation in the United States has had a variety of tools to use and tax on other countries. Economic sanctions are, are often just the beginning. Another thing you like to do is place some military pressure on the countries that youre talking about and there has to be an effort to demonize that country and the leader of that country. We have a responsibility for the whole world and we need to make rules for the rest. Because without us there will be ah welcome back to cross stock where all things are considered on peter la built to remind you were discussing the end of the American Century. Ah. Go back to peter in bethesda, im sorry i had to cut you up. We had to go to a hard break, go ahead, finish your thought peter. Lenny quite frequently chest. He said in individuals insanity is rare. But in groups, parties, nations, and epics. It is the rule up to this point i least till 77 years ago with the its hammock bombs at hiroshima and nagasaki. We did not have the power to and life on the planet the way we do now. So i, you see in the United States, democracy is very, very fragile right now. Youve got one party committed to destroying american democracy. The little bit democracy. It is still remains in the United States and biden, in his policy and his efforts to, to weaken punish russia is bringing about the collapse, the further destruction of american democracy, bringing the trumpets back into power. It takes no rational sense. And what were seeing on a global scale right now also makes no rational sense. So, i mean, i think were at it at a crucial turning point. Because the United States, while it might not have the moral authority and might not have the economic power that at once did still has the power to bring the world down. And so thats what makes us so dangerous. And others recognize at the meeting in anchorage between lincoln a sullivan and a to chop, chop Chinese Foreign policy officials back in march of last year. When wang ye says to blanket to sullivan, he says, you dont have the authority to talk to us like this. Any more, you cant talk to us when position of strength. Well, thats true, but there is nobody providing International Leisure pepe is more optimistic, but he was a global south than i am right now. Because i see a struggle that is much more dangerous and much more unresolved. I see some positive development. I also see negative ones. I see yoon winning in south korea. I see japan moving sharply to the right. I see a lot of very dangerous trends as well. As some positive ones. Ok, lets go back to a cow here. One of the things that i bit of observed here on how the global south is reacted to the situation in ukraine. And i think its important to state here is that the global south no longer the 1st law doesnt respect the west any more because of its hypocrisy. But it doesnt fear it is much either. And that is a significant paradigm shift right now, because we see the global south is basically saying, you know, we dont want to get involved in a conflict that you generated. Then we can talk about the origins while we want. But theyre saying its not our fight and why should and then if it, when the idea of sovereignty or you have to protect ukraine sovereignty. But the global south is saying, were going to protect our sovereignty too, by not getting involved in your fight. And i think this is a paradigm shift there. Theyre no longer respect or fear the west go ahead in cali. But you know what, you know, peter, you know, youre right. Oh, but i think that when we single the self to isnt understanding that in fact, power is shifting to, to the non european world if you will. And so theres always been a understanding of the potential power here in the global. So we understood the, the parasitic relationship between the development of the north and the on the development of the south. But now the conditions are such that basically theres the possibility of more effective resistance as to what we see in the globe of our, the experiment taking place of the reconstruction of societies along a new path of development and new lines of, of values. And that is something i think is very, very positive. One of the things that we have to understand is that what makes the north so incredibly dangerous . Is this, this, this inflated sense of itself in, but believe that without if a leadership Global Leadership that the, that the world can no longer exist, as we know, it goes back to your point about about us exceptionalism. You have your opinion exceptionalism, the psychopath. Biology, a white supremacist white supremacists, etiology has to be addressed front and center. The europeans have to understand that theyre no longer the center of the world. And again, when they understand that, and we able to, to make that reflect a material reality, that is shifting power from the europeans, that we have the possibility of developing and constructing a new world. Ok pepe in this article here by this david bresner a essentially is asking, what is the world like after the American Century . Is it a good thing should be wed be afraid because i think i think youre right, peter is a little bit more pessimistic. Youre a little bit more optimistic. Where do you, where does it go from here . Because that the global system ever since 945 has been centered on the west, specifically the United States that is slowly drifting away. Is that a good thing . A bad thing, a dangerous thing. Go ahead, pepe. Well, if i was really a passive nihilist not an active night list as nature. I will give up completely and isolate myself, one of volcanic island, somewhere. I still, i still, i still, im a writer in writers as you all know the di writing. So i will die writing and at least trying to find the array of lights into, into this mile strong. Edgar alone polls miles from in fact. And thats why these past few years, i have been focusing on whats happening across the region, the development slowly, but surely of all these organizations, this young guy, corporation, organization, eurasia, economic union, now bricks plus, which is something that the chinese and the russians have been pushing for quite a while now, the c s t o o, the projects of the new silk roads and merging with the russian concept of greater ration partnership and how all of these organizations and this, a framework across eurasia is spilling over towards africa, latin america. But then the remote to be share here to be fair he