On Romney from the Eastern periphery

A geopolitical analyst, in a comment on the last televised presidential debate in the US, wonders whether Hungary would be better off with a conservative US president who despises state regulation in the economy, but endorses a hard line in foreign policy.

“For us on the Eastern periphery of the Western world the main question is whether Romney can be identified with the bad spirits of America. Does he really believe that US supremacy can be sustained, and the 21^st century should be another American century? Does he really believe that the state should step back because the self-regulatory powers of capitalism will solve the economic crisis?” Gábor László Zord asks in Magyar Nemzet.

Zord points out that the Republican candidate seems to endorse neoliberal economic doctrines and a more assertive foreign policy aiming at promoting US interests all over the world. Europe and Hungary would be better off if her main ally, the US was led by someone who does not try to promote American interests at the price of reduced national sovereignty, weakening democratic control and fading national cultures, Zord contends. Barack Obama, he continues, has tried to be a President like that, but has not yet fully succeeded in transforming the US. Although in the last presidential debate Romney too toned down his earlier hardline foreign policy ideas and sent a centrist message, he would have a harder time resisting lobbies which would pressurize him to return to a vision of American exceptionalism and interventionism, Zord speculates.

Tags: Europe, foreign affairs, US