Friendship and International Relations
Parallels Between Personal and Inter-National Social Support (Vol. 5; Issue 12)
Habits like eating well, exercising, and getting a good night’s sleep regularly remain common-sense methods for maintaining your health. Equally important, and traceable to our species’ evolutionary roots, is social support. Caring for, and being cared for, by close friends and family, strengthens us. Sebastian Junger (2016) considers purpose, competence, and community central to effective living. Who could argue those?
If you are fortunate, you enjoy a concentric circle of such loving persons. Those within the inner circle “have your back” in every way. With them, you’re free to express your authentic self. The circle expands next to friendly coworkers or colleagues with whom you have similarly supportive relations. People you see regularly at markets, drug stores, coffee shops, and the like form an outer ring. You hopefully are also friendly with them, and vice versa. However, those closer to the inside would offer help—at a moment’s notice—in the case of illness, family crises, or natural disasters.
The relationship between nations ideally follows the same pattern. These entities, of course, are simply groups of persons. Political philosophers agree that countries benefit from mutual support. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1795/2021) was a strong proponent of the idea. He envisioned a world in which “a federation of independent republics” would embrace “an ethos of universal hospitality.”
Furthermore, Kant believed, enhanced international trade—nations trading goods and services with one another—discouraged them from using aggression to resolve disputes. Strengthening cooperative ties between nations truly created peaceful relations. Returning to the group of friends then, imagine they trade items with one another—just as Kant recommended. A sense of mutual dependence arises, which benefits all. Such inter-relations serve the interests of tranquility and reciprocity. Also, in our age of undeniable globalization, no one friend or group of friends can produce manufactured items. It takes varieties of partnership.
Several literal confirmations of Kant’s ideas are found in international agreements reached after the end of World War II. The establishment of the United Nations in 1948, along with its Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), was a milestone in the evolution of civilization. All 193 member states founding the UN signed off on the document. Trade agreements like the European Union (EU) have fostered unprecedented economic growth and furthered international cooperation since the 1993 signing of the treaty. One year later, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, tying the economies of Canada, Mexico, and the US together.
Tragically, nearly 75 years of post WWII peace ended when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Prior to that time, wars ravaged major nation states with regularity. Looking back just 200 years, you find World War I (1914-1918), the Russo-Japanese War* (1904-1905), the Boer Wars (1899-1902), the Spanish-American War (1898), The War of 1812, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and the American Civil War (1861-1865).
As you well know, Trump, emboldened by Putin’s aggression, talks absurdly of annexing Canada and Greenland. He considers dissolving NATO. He promises to break treaties supportive of the EU and, of course, NAFTA. He threatens Mexico, Canada, China, and the EU itself with tariffs (which economists believe triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s). For all of Trump’s worries about China, we engage in massive amounts of bilateral trade with that country.
Putin’s ending of those recent decades of unprecedented peace, and Trump’s American isolationism, began a metaphorical dissolution of the close friendship group described above. Several of your friends outrightly betrayed you. One friend threatened to enslave two of your friends (Canada and Greenland). Another friend deceived you by invading the property of another (Ukraine), killing hundreds of thousands of the members of its household. A few of your wealthier friends seek to dominate you and your other friends. The way you’ve traded goods and services with one another becomes disorganized, leaving you feeling uncertain as to whether you can get X for yourself when you deliver Y to a friend.
These literally anti-social actions spread fear throughout the globe. Not only do they counter Kant’s idea of “universal hospitality,” they are, in fact, aggressive acts. Trump fails to understand the reality that the world became globalized decades ago. As already suggested, few complex manufactured products come from one country alone; they are, instead, created by multiple countries working in coordination with one another.
Not only are the tariffs problematic, but the threats of American isolationism also frighten other countries. Can America still be counted on for trade or protection? Countries about to be “set loose” from American protection, like members of the EU, now actively consider developing nuclear weapons to protect themselves—a situation risking dangerous nuclear proliferation.
Consciousness eventually seeps into the unconscious of global citizens. Those anxious about the world order disintegrating are perceiving political events accurately. Outrage, loss, sadness, and grief seem to be blending into a vague, generalized dread, creating a magma-like cauldron of primitive feelings. Thus far, global citizens seem to be reacting with passivity. They ignore these emotions; they dissociate from them. But one cannot help but wonder if the pressure built by such suppression will erupt in some way. A revolution? A military coup? Millions taking to the streets when the healthcare for poor people (Medicaid) ends?
Regarding these uncomfortable feelings and possible reaction, we can observe, within our own country, how the democracy enshrined by the Constitution already teeters. Two of the three pillars of the power-balancing system, the Executive Branch and Congress, act in unison. The Republican-controlled House and Senate show fealty to Trump—as if he is a monarch. Only the Courts, the third pillar, can prevent the end of the American democratic experiment. And recently, it, too, comes under attack by the other two branches.
Just days ago, Trump posted:
I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!
Trump’s unofficial co-president, Elon Musk, added fuel to the fire by writing:
The only way to restore rule of the people in America is to impeach judges.
Even Congress joined in the fray: Republicans in the House have introduced impeachment resolutions against several federal judges whose decisions they dislike. That top of that third pillar of the American democratic system, the Supreme Court, now wavers itself. It could join either side—one promoting democracy and the other ushering in autocracy. The Court, thus far, responds blandly. Chief Justice Roberts issued these brief words on Tuesday, March 18th:
For more than two centuries it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreements concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.
A tepid two sentences, for sure, but still unusual for the Court to issue. There is also concern that the Trump administration might openly defy a court order when issued. If it does so, regardless of how the Supreme Court acts, a clear constitutional crisis begins. It may well spell the end of American democracy.
Here we Americans stand, frightened by the destruction of our societal level support system—namely our government—and waiting for what happens next. Will our orderly system of peaceful relating be replaced by an authoritarian or even dictatorial leader? It only took one year for Hitler to rise from a democratically elected Chancellor in January 1933 to his self-assigned status of "Führer” in August 1934. How did such a dramatic decline in American democracy occur with Trump in power for only two months?
Countless factors coalesced—naïve beliefs in Trump’s promises, worries over Biden’s competency, inadequacies in Harris’ candidacy, undereducated voters, Christian fundamentalism, intolerance of immigration policies, and fears of endless wars featured prominently. Trump’s desires to break up alliances and to initiate trade wars will end a nearly half-century of inter-national support and initiate an era of each nation for itself.
If compared to the friendship analogy, these forces will destroy well-established, loving bonds of friendship. And, the peace and tranquility associated with the mutual support would cease. The American political situation may well signal the start of an American autocracy. Whatever the causes, autocracy is a gargantuan, bitter pill for us to swallow. If we end up ingesting it, we American citizens, as well as our fellow global ones, will be the ones poisoned.
_____________________________________
*My great-grandfather, Aaron, after whom I was named, was blinded fighting for the Russians in this terrible conflict.
Enjoying this newsletter?
And check out my book, Lover, Exorcist, Critic: Understanding Depth Psychotherapy, available on Amazon.
References
Junger, S. (2016). Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. New York: Twelve Publishing.
Kant, I. (1795/2021). Towards Perpetual Peace. Trans. M.C. Smith. New York: Independent.
United Nations General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217 A (III), U.N. Doc. A/810 (10 December 1948).