The Dead End of Pursuing Dominance

The U.S. pursuit of dominance in every region inevitably breeds enemies.

Peter Beinart advises Washington to stop driving other countries into the orbit of Russia and China:

If even governments that shared a common Marxist ideology didn’t always get along, there’s even less reason to believe that the diverse forms of tyranny practiced in China, Russia, Iran and Cuba constitute binding glue today. There’s nothing ideologically predestined about the growing security or military ties between Havana and Beijing or Tehran and Moscow. They stem, in large measure, from Washington’s efforts to starve Cuba and Iran into submission rather than forge working relationships with regimes whose political systems and foreign policy orientations we dislike.

To the extent that these governments have built closer relationships over the last decade, the U.S. has given them all strong incentives to do so. We shouldn’t exaggerate the minimal threat from Cuba or Iran, but we should acknowledge that it would be preferable for the U.S. if Washington had better relations with both of them. Beinart hits on several important points in the column, but he doesn’t go far enough. Ending the economic wars against Cuba and Iran (among others) would be excellent, but as long as the U.S. seeks dominance it will eventually target other states with the same punitive treatment.