Thread by @ProfPaulPoast

Is 🇺🇸 still seen as the "indispensable nation"?

Sort of. To see why, let's compare the movies "Armageddon" (from 1998) and "Don't Look Up" (from 2021)

[THREAD]

Before reading the rest of the thread, I'm should note that this thread contains SPOILERS!!

Both movies are about 🌏 being imminently threatened by a asteroid (Armageddon)/comet (Don't Look UP).

That's NOT an implausible scenario.

cnn.com/2020/03/03/wor…

Both movies also use a similar phrase to describe the "near earth object": a planet killer.

Fortunately, though an asteroid collision with Earth is a real (but not high probability) threat, @AsteroidWatch is ON IT!

https://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch/status/1476662269660516358

Facing a "Planet killer" asteroid seems like an obvious scenario to prompt international cooperation. Right?

Perhaps. But both movies take an 🇺🇸-centered approach, by exploring the US response.

Focusing on the US makes sense because (1) the movies were made primarily for American audiences, and (2) the relative size of the US space program budget compared to other nations.

Source: spacenews.com/op-ed-global-g…

But the 🇺🇸-centered stories also allow both movies to make larger points about the US role in the world at the time that they were made.

Let's break down each movie.

Armageddon was released in 1998, so it was released in the midst of post-Cold War "unipolar moment"...

foreignaffairs.com/articles/1990-…

...where 🇺🇸 was viewed as what Madeleine Albright called the "Indispensable Nation".

Source: 1997-2001.state.gov/statements/199…

In the movie, it's ALL UP to the United States to save humanity. This is taken as a given. The only question is how, not whether.

And the rest of the world waits and hopes.

I should note Russia plays a critical supporting role...

...which tells you A LOT about the state of US-Russian relations at the time (see, for example, the document collection @e_sarotte compiled for @NSArchive)

nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/…

In the end, America saves the day, and the world celebrates!

"Don't Look Up" was released in 2021 and, well, the perspective couldn't be more different (see, for example, @MicahZenko in @ForeignPolicy).

foreignpolicy.com/2014/11/06/the…

Compared to "Armageddon", "Don't Look Up" is more attuned to US domestic politics and how domestic support is necessary to sustain hegemony (see @profmusgrave in @SecStudies_Jrnl)

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

Specifically, the movie puts front and center how the need to win elections gives the President incentives to oppose (at first), then support, then oppose a policy position.

But more importantly, "Don't Look Up" captures how multipolarity can alter the behavior of the declining hegemon and make cooperation more difficult (see @CarlaNorrlof & @WCWohlforth in @SecStudies_Jrnl)

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

In particular, the movie explicitly raises the issue of China controlling key minerals required for electronics production (see this @CFR_org report by Eugene Gholz for more details)...

cfr.org/sites/default/…

...which leads to the plan of ALLOWING the comet (which is rich in these elements) to hit earth so that the elements can be extracted.

This prompts 🇨🇳& 🇷🇺 to attempt their own mission to deflect the asteroid (so that 🇺🇸 can't extract the elements). But that mission fails....as does the US extraction mission. 🌏 is doomed.

You could say that the movie shows how multipoliarty makes cooperation ...difficult.
link.springer.com/article/10.105…

Such cooperation is especially difficult when it comes to taking action on climate change, which is the actual metaphor of the movie.
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Interestingly, both movies show 🇺🇸 as "indispensable"...but it's willingness to accept the responsibility of that role has changed: as 🇺🇸 relative power has declined, so has its willingness to embrace a "Spider-man foreign principle"

So both movies view 🇺🇸 as the "indispensable" nation.

But they have different views on 🇺🇸 being the "responsible" nation.

[END]