August 15, 2021 was at least traumatic for the US. The indiscriminate escape from the Kabul airport, thousands of people trapped, and the return of the Taliban to the Afghan capital after a huge investment of money and the lives of American citizens have done serious damage to America’s prestige and credibility. Those of us who have spoken with colleagues across the Atlantic have heard firsthand of the justified disappointment of most of them with the particular choice of the White House, and European capitals were also dissatisfied with Washington, which “did not bother” to inform them. about the exit from Afghanistan.

The following months for the United States underline what Vladimir Lenin once said: “There are decades when nothing is done …”, until suddenly the war in Ukraine and the role of the United States confirm the continuity of the words of the Soviet leader: “… and there are weeks that happen decades “. Washington’s systematic coordination of support for Ukraine shows that the US has not only not fallen into the extreme Jacksonianism that Trump sought during his tenure, but continues to pursue key policies for the evolution of the international system, certainly not in the context of unipolar oversimplification, as many still consider, but multipolar interdependence, which increases the value, but also the complexity of the US strategic choices.

But even inside the conditions were not easier. The toxicity of the Capitol Invasion continues to permeate the American political system, while economic pressure on small town incomes continues to mount as a result of the global downturn, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the result of the midterm elections shows that the American political system continues to function under considerable pressure. The state is not idle or running on auto-pilot, and I really cannot say if any other major state in the Western world, be it Canada, France, Germany or the UK, will be able to sustain this debilitating balance between Scylla and Charybdis.

What is the reason why the US systematically continues to be at the forefront of the West and develops a key policy for all states belonging to this pole? One of the reasons, of course, is the economy, or rather the zone of technological innovation. To be sure, it is the university institutions, mostly on the east coast, that function as hives for the production of primary thought and leaders at all levels. This is certainly a long-term successful model for overcoming the European approach to racial identity, conditionally expressed in terms of early neotherism, and creating an alternative liberal and cosmopolitan model for integrating new population groups into the national body. But above all, it is the state organization of the state, which, while providing a strong president, at the same time ensures constitutional control over his decisions and institutional balancing of his political power. The two houses of parliament, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) and the constitutionally regulated media are the essential pillars of the state.

The example of the United States shows us that even in cases of critically wrong elections at the level of foreign policy or in “interesting” elections of people at home from the point of view of the Maoists, the state can continue not only to function, but also to offer solutions and solutions. open new roads. Benjamin Franklin’s answer to a question he received from a passerby as he left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 about what kind of government the United States had acquired is still relevant and certainly applies to all democracies internationally: “Democracy, if we leave it.”

* Mr. Spiros N. Litsas is Professor of International Relations Theory at the University of Macedonia.