Henryh Auguste Winkler

Will America give up leadership of the West?

By: Henryh Auguste Winkler *

formally take office and enter the White House and sit in the Oval Office as the 45th President to succeed outgoing President Barack Obama.
The modern West was formed in January 1917. The First World War was at the time of the European continent. In Washington, President Woodrow Wilson told the American people that the time has come for the Americans to take responsibility for "peace and justice." In April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson said: "The world must be secure in order to spread democracy."
Of course, President Woodrow Wilson declared war against Germany and sent American troops to Europe to resolve the military victory in favor of Western democracies. The United States took over the leadership of the modern Western world, and that was in fact a kind of political globalization in its early stages.
Donald Trump is the 44th president of the United States. Trump is the man who has nothing to do with globalization, the man who plays the chord of American nationalism, the man who promotes isolationism and partial withdrawal from world trade. He is also the man who does not want to bear his country. No responsibility for the risk of climate change in the world. This was the result of an election campaign of hatred, racism and incitement.
Human dignity is the cornerstone of the entire Western project. Following the revolution that broke out in France and the United States of America in the late 18th century, states began to guarantee human rights, which became the basic building blocks of the modern West. Western politicians today can not embody this Western project. Some analysts consider that Donald Trump is not qualified to lead the modern Arab world, because he is neither ready nor able to carry out this global role.
We are facing a vacuum today - just as we face the fear of emptiness. What will happen to the West, Europe and Germany without the United States as a superpower leading the West and the world?
Germany is the daughter and descendant of the West, especially the United States of America. Germany was born thanks to the generosity of the United States of America, and it was the United States of America that long fed Germany, which was in a state of great shock until it recovered and stood on its feet and stepped back.
At the same time, the US president has always been our president, the Germans. President Barack Obama was worthy of being president of the West. Today we have to wake up to the new reality and live with the idea of ​​losing Western leadership.
How were the last 100 years between 1917 and 2017 that are coming?
We can tell the history of the modern West in many ways and forms. The West is a heroic story, just as it is a story of greed, a story of civilization, or a story of fear.
This article focuses on the story of one hundred years of fear, especially the fear of our freedom, this almost satisfactory fear emanating from the United States of America and then moving to various Western countries.
I am not talking about fear as a negative concept, but as a shield to protect us from dangers. There are positive concerns as well as negative concerns.
Under American leadership, the united Western democracies managed to coexist with the competing regimes and defeated the conservative German and Austrian empire of the First World War. In World War II, these Western democracies led by the United States succeeded in rooting out repressive regimes in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. During the Cold War, the Soviet communist empire collapsed until it collapsed and disintegrated.
In the early 1990s, the West was the victor of history.
What made the West strong?
Freedom is one of the greatest factors that created the power of the West. There is no doubt that the freedom-based market economy was far superior to the state-oriented economy. Freedom has created competition among the various forces. This has enabled the West, which encourages freedom of initiative, to develop its products that are today of high quality. The West achieved Azdar, To win wars and to resolve the race for armaments.
The fear of losing this freedom has always led the West to work to consolidate and strengthen its societies and protect them from destructive currents. Of course, there were sharp debates and demonstrations. Other parties adopted communist thought and rejected the Western liberal model. It was always possible to secure the majority needed to build consensus and defend the Western model.
We will continue to preserve our freedoms at home and abroad, and we will continue to promote, expand and strengthen our freedoms, which have also contributed significantly to maintaining the cohesion of our countries. Under US leadership, under the US nuclear umbrella, the countries that make up the West remain relatively uniform and strong.
The 1990s were the happiest years of the modern West. The democratic world has expanded and our fear of our freedoms has diminished, if not diminished. With the fall of the Soviet Union, there is no other superpower that challenges our Western freedoms.
It all began on September 11, 2001. Islamic extremists attacked the Freedom Capital of the West - New York - and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Since that day, terrorism has been creeping into the world and has not stopped until today.
Fear is on the world now more than ever. It's not just fear of terrorism or fear of losing freedom - as we have in the West in the past. Do not forget also the fear of freedom itself. This transformation paved the way for Donald Trump to come to the White House.
These two types of concerns are intertwined in Western societies. Freedom is a source to enjoy as much as fear. There are those who defend freedom while others fight for it or because of it. Freedom is extensive or restricted. Freedom is the reason why fear sometimes hangs over societies and freedom is what brings power and authority.
Fear of freedom may take many forms. Is there also the fear that people in the West feel about their freedom, in addition to fear of the freedom of others? The French existential philosopher John Paul Sartre once said in his writings: "Others are hell." We can add and say: "Others are hell, especially if you are liberated."
If people are relatively free to cross the border and look for new places to settle, they may raise fears. If people have the freedom to export their goods and products and thus compete with the goods and products of other countries, they raise concerns.
If people are free to defend equal rights between people like women and non-whites, they raise fears. White men - especially older white men - are the ones who made the elected US president Donald Trump the king. The overwhelming majority of this electorate supported Donald Trump and turned her back on Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton.
Democrats misjudged this category and did not read it. They have left these white men and women who think of themselves and carry the same mindset to their fears. The Democrats did not take this category of voters seriously.
The fears that continue to worsen over the years are generating anger, especially anger at those politicians who give the impression that they do not care and do nothing to dispel their fears - this is the case for politics and media at the same time.
For the first time, the Internet provided the space needed to express this anger until it reached public opinion on a very wide scale, making angry voices and frightened voices louder than any other voice.
When Donald Trump set himself up at the head of an angry and fearful movement, he found a large stock that helped him reach the White House as an elected president. Many expect Donald Trump to restrict freedoms - including freedom of trade and immigration. Many Americans, especially minorities, fear the fate of their freedom, but the danger comes from within this time - from Donald Trump. They fear that discrimination, racism and hatred against them will increase, their cultures and their lifestyles.
The drama in which we live today in the West summarizes the following sentence: Liberty is the greatest advantage in the West and has now become a threat. This is the crisis of the West today. He seeks to protect the freedom he has enjoyed, but he fears this freedom just as he is afraid of the freedom of others. That is the real problem. This crisis is striking today Western democracies, which are witnessing an increase of fear and anger for the same reasons that we find today in the United States of America - migration, globalization and free trade in particular.
Americans are more concerned than ever before when it comes to the FTA, but they are even more afraid of the Europeans themselves. There is really no reason for Americans and Europeans to fear this way, as he expects Donald Trump to cancel the FTAA.
In Western Europe, fear and anger have not been organized so far so that they can push one of their representatives to power at the highest level of power, as in the United States of America, although such a scenario may soon take place in Austria in early December 2016
. The United States has long been leading the West, shielding it from dangers and threats and providing a military umbrella. But if new President Donald Trump, as promised during his election campaign, dreams of abandoning her role as leader of the free world. When the Europeans will have to assume this leading role in the free world.
The European continent must stand up to the growing populist political currents, face anger and dispel the growing fears of political parties and extremist political movements to expand their radiation and gain footprints in decision-making circles. Europe must do so without restricting freedoms.
It is time for European countries to strengthen their union so that they can play a leading role. It has been said and written thousands of times, but Donald Trump may shock the Europeans and make them wake up this time from their long-term dormancy.
Regrettably, there are countries that are at their worst for decades. The British voted yes to withdraw from the European Union, partly because of the fear of others' freedom and the freedom others might have to stay in Britain. Most European countries have become more focused on controversial issues that divide rather than focus on issues that unite. We will not exaggerate if we say that the decade of European countries is beginning to be overstated.
Europeans can continue to manage their crises and divisions instead of strengthening their unity. For the 100 years during which the United States of America was the protector of the leading role in the West and even in the world. In the meantime, the allied countries enjoyed this American security and military umbrella and did not really seek to build the European idea, knowing that the Americans will always be there and ready to protect them.
Every European country - particularly Britain, Germany and France - has been trying to maintain its own relationship with the United States without focusing on strengthening the idea of ​​European unity. Every European country relied on its weapons and armed with determination and will in emergencies. This is happening at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - he urged - are on the European border.
There is no doubt that Western leaders will face great problems in the absence of the United States of America, which may step down from its leading role and recoil. The future burden may be on Chancellor Angela Merkel. It represents a strong state and has strong moral convictions that have been demonstrated by its humanitarian dealings with the Syrian refugee crisis.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is not required to be Germany's Woodrow Wilson, but she has all the ingredients to lead Europe. If the chancellor did not do so, it would mean that she did not understand well the manifestations and signs of time!

A German historian born in 1938, one of his most important books is The History of the West and The Past Who Does not Want to Go.
Der Spiegel