Wei Nanzhi: Analysis of American "throwing pot doctrine"
Author: Wei Nanzhi is a researcher at the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Source: Guangming Daily, January 17, 2022, 12th edition; Analysis of Current Politics and State Relations
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
It is a long-standing tradition of the United States to "throw the pot" and pass on the crisis at home and abroad, and a set of mechanisms and related strategies for transferring crises and shirking responsibilities have been established. Not only has the United States been able to weather the crisis safely and let the devastation of the crisis be borne more by strategic opponents, but it has often increased the dependence of allies or other small countries on it, making the United States stronger after the crisis.
First, the root cause of "throwing pot doctrine"
The combination of American religious traditions and political philosophy, especially the pragmatic political narrative of "success and defeat", is the ideological root of its long-term adoption of "pot-throwing doctrine".
(1) Ideological basis
Both the national consciousness of the United States and the national consciousness of the United States are inseparable from the political theological project of Protestantism, and pragmatism is the sublimation and refinement of this political theological mission in industrial society, and the two together constitute the "American spirit".
Based on the political theological construction of "God's chosen people", the world outside the United States is regarded as both a threat and a mission by the United States: on the one hand, The United States' internal and external powers, conspiracies, and even killings are defined as necessary sacrifices to achieve a "sense of mission in the world"; on the other hand, once there is a major crisis within the United States, it will look for a common external enemy (threat) to achieve internal unity. Based on the philosophy of pragmatism, the "ideal" of US foreign policy is nothing more than a tool for seeking private interests, and international exchanges are either an exchange of interests or a confrontation of forces, and do not have to follow established values and rules.
Thus, the sense of political theological mission that the world outside the United States, especially the pagans, can be transformed in any way stems from the pragmatic philosophy of "use what is in harmony and discarded if it is not." "Throwing the pot" is justified at both the level of religious and political thought in the United States.
(2) Practical needs
American politicians and ruling groups are not only good at passing on crises externally and internally, but also good at transferring contradictions, and are often tied to racism, ideological struggle, electoral politics, etc., and also take the opportunity to strengthen the dependence of their allies or other small countries on the United States. The more the United States relies on its hegemonic position to pass on the crisis outward, the more it forces its allies and other small countries to rely on the United States; the stronger the ability to transfer the crisis abroad, the more other countries are afraid of becoming the target of diversion, and the more they become dependent on the United States in terms of security interests. This kind of foreign strategy of strengthening the dependence of all countries in the world on US security by passing on the crisis makes full use of the law of the jungle of the international community and the selfish psychology of each country to avoid risks and responsibilities, and realizes the strategic cycle of passing on the crisis to the outside world, the more it deters the countries of the world, and the more it strengthens its own hegemony.
Second, the relevant cases of "throwing pot doctrine"
By shifting the crisis and shirking responsibility for problems originating in the United States to other countries, the United States has formed a set of mature mechanisms and practices, which can be seen in the following cases:
(i) Spanish influenza
The Spanish flu originated in the United States. In order to ensure the smooth participation in the First World War to divide the results of the war, the US military brought influenza to European countries while participating in the war in Europe. The main reason for Spain's backs was that Spain remained neutral in World War I. As a neutral country, after Spain was hit by the flu, Spanish newspapers published information about the spread of the disease, which made the world realize that this catastrophic disease is not the common cold. However, the countries that have previously concealed the epidemic, especially the United States, have taken this opportunity to "throw the pot" and name the epidemic "Spanish flu", allowing Spain to carry the black pot for the United States.
(ii) During the Cold War
During the Cold War, against the backdrop of the confrontation between the two major blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union, "security" was the greatest interest of the Western capitalist world system dominated by the United States. Since the United States is the only country in this system that can provide security guarantees, the interests of the United States itself, the interests of the system and the interests of other member countries in the system are highly correlated, so the domestic crisis in the United States is often in the name of "security interests", and the cost of the crisis is exported to other countries in the system in various ways and successfully passed on the crisis. For example, taking advantage of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the United States was able to deploy military bases around the world on the pretext of so-called security guarantees; for example, by taking advantage of the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, the United States used "security threats" to build the US dollar into a de facto world credit currency and established the "dollar standard".
(iii) The 2007 financial crisis
In 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the United States and quickly developed into an international financial crisis. The European debt crisis, especially the sovereign debt crisis of many countries in southern Europe, is the product of the crisis of the United States transferring to the outside world. The "pass-through crisis" in the United States is divided into two stages: the first stage is the "nationalization" of private debt in the United States, that is, the resolution of private debt risks through nationalization, such as solving the "two-room crisis"; the second stage is to "internationalize" the debt of the United States, by forcing the vast majority of countries in the world to share the risks brought about by the financial crisis, such as the European debt crisis and the import-type economic crisis of East Asian countries, so that the United States has come out of the negative economic growth faster.
Third, the mechanism and influence of "throwing pot doctrine"
The United States comprehensively uses multiple mechanisms such as politics, economy, military, science and technology, and discourse power, based on the geostrategic depth supported by its military hegemony, while opening up its own market to allow other countries to produce a certain degree of dependence on the U.S. market, and using its strategic control over basic resources such as global oil and food that it gradually formed in the 1970s, it has shaped the global expansion of financial capital with the US dollar as the hub, forming a structurally unequal global economic industrial chain and distribution system, making it " "Pot-throwing doctrine" has a well-established operating mechanism that can force or even induce other countries to bear the enormous costs of passing on the crisis when it comes."
(1) Political mechanisms
The combination of electoral politics and federalism is conducive to the transfer of crises between the United States and the outside world. The right to vote gives the American people the illusion of changing the political status quo through voting, and the parallel relationship between the federal government, the state government, and the local government under the federal system, and the key positions in the executive and legislative affairs of all levels of government are elected by the people, which together determine that the United States is a limited government, that is, no one can be responsible for the entire system and the overall situation. On the one hand, such a system design is conducive to decomposing, digesting, and disintegrating the internal contradictions of the United States, and on the other hand, it is conducive to the negative political consequences of passing on the crisis to the outside world, which can be digested with the US election cycle.
(2) Military mechanisms
On the one hand, it forces more and more countries to rely on the United States to provide security protection; on the other hand, when the internal crisis of the United States breaks out, it forces countries to force countries to accept the demand of the United States to pass on the crisis, and stimulates the demand for safe haven of the US dollar to maintain the financial hegemony of the United States by launching a local war or military conflict with overwhelming superiority, creating an internal conflict in a certain country or region to form turmoil, or building regional instability through military threats.
(3) Economic mechanisms
The United States controls the pricing power of the world's major resources, which is conducive to the US financial capital dominating the operation of the global multinational fiscal and monetary system, and through policies such as low interest rates, weak currencies, and "quantitative easing", it pushes up commodity prices and raises the demand for DOLLAR transactions, and transfers the risks of the United States to the united states without restriction.
(4) Scientific and technological mechanisms
The scientific research capabilities, core patents and high-end manufacturing capabilities of the United States are the basis for the United States to control the industrial chain and pricing power, which is conducive to its external pass-through crisis. Moreover, the United States is good at combining crises-making and passing on crises to force or induce scientists to "flee" to the United States, for example, the United States made full use of World War II to attract Jewish scientists to the United States, used the Cold War to attract scientists from Eastern Europe and Asia to the United States, and used the disintegration of the Soviet Union to attract scientists from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to the United States.
(5) Discourse rights mechanisms
The United States holds the international discourse power in the world today, and through the combination of domestic legislation and long-arm jurisdiction, leading the formulation of international organizations and international rules, cultivating the world's multinational elites and cultivating non-governmental organizations, it can suppress, smear, threaten and sanction a specific country on its own initiative or in conjunction with many countries, transfer the internal crisis of the United States to it, and rationalize and justify its behavior of passing on the crisis externally.
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of this official account
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