Sean T. Byrnes is a writer, teacher, and historian who lives in middle Tennessee. He is the author of Disunited Nations: US Foreign Policy, Anti-Americanism, and the Rise of the New Right, from LSU Press.
The presidency of Jimmy Carter was deeply constrained by economic and political crises. His unwillingness to take a radical stance forced him to respond to these events by imposing austerity and doing little to strengthen labor.
From Brexit to Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s anti-China policies, elites are offering their own challenges to the free-trade consensus — just as they did during the early 20th century’s pushback against “globalism.”
Liberals constantly urge citizens to accept difficult decisions to protect the capitalist economy. This wasn’t always the case.
For a brief period after World War II, Third World nations played an active role in shaping the world economic order and fostering development. For all its promises and a few success stories, neoliberalism hasn’t done the same.
Following the Vietnam War, global progressive movements sought to refashion the world in the interests of the majority. The failure of this project, and the subsequent triumph of liberal interventionism, explains the arrogance of the US foreign policy elite.