Will West Give Up Interventionism Amid Worsening Internal Problems?

By Mu Lu

Feb 01, 2021 10:23 PM

Degradation in the Western system Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Expansionist and interventionist moves have long been exploited by Western countries to consolidate their dominance across the world. In such ways, countries in the West have stabilized their relatively superior position. But in recent years, particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many problems accumulated for some time in the West have been exposed. There even was an unprecedented political crisis in the US, the leader of the so-called free world. 

The West hasn't abandoned interventionism, but this clearly can no more stop the West's chronic diseases from worsening. 

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Friday during a webinar organized by the US Institute of Peace that "right now, the most profound national security challenge facing the United States is getting our own house in order, is domestic renewal." The same day, the British newspaper The Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins called on the UK government to focus on addressing its own business rather than on China's affairs related to Xinjiang or Hong Kong. Jenkins wrote, "Sovereign countries change not from without but from within." 

Creating and using external contradictions and problems to divert internal attention is a tactic often used by Western countries, but now this trick seems difficult to work. The cruel reality of declining Western influence shows that the health and vitality of society and political solidarity in a country directly affect the stability of the country and its international image.

It is painful for Western elites to admit this. But they have to face the reality as their countries' problems are too severe to be neglected. If they are still reluctant to introspect while keen on interfering in others' internal affairs, it will be no help in addressing their own problems.

Nonetheless, the West may be reluctant to give up their old interventionist approach. Li Haidong, a professor at Institute of International Relations, China Foreign Affairs University, noted on Monday, "The essence of those remarks are to assure the US and the West's leading position and dominance in international affairs. They eye power competition and sustaining their leadership."

Interfering in the outside world and reshaping the politics and values of other countries are always the goals of the US, as well as the means for the West to maintain its dominant position. Driven by political interests, Western elites can hardly make wise choices that are responsible for their own country and  people.

Li believes that the root of the difficulty for Western elites to fundamentally reflect on themselves lies in their belief that: "If interventionism is abandoned, then the US will not be the US anymore, and the West will hardly be the West it used to be."

However, as the West has wrought havoc around the world, it has also set a fire within itself. Such chaos does no good to any country. The world's peace, stability, prosperity, and development are the common interests of all countries, including Western countries.

Today, the West, which is keen on inciting chaos in other countries, is increasingly engulfed by chaos from within. Solving its predicament needs long term stability and development. While the West often disrupts the development of other countries, it squanders its own resources and capital necessary for its own development.

It is time for the West to stop its engagement in interventionism and let the world focus on development.