Leggi in ItalianoThere are times when certain songs come back to mind almost spontaneously, because they seem to capture what is happening around us better than so much political analysis.
I’ve been experiencing this quite often lately. And one of the songs I keep coming back to is “This Is Not America”, by David Bowie and Pat Metheny, released in 1985.
A song born in the atmosphere of the Cold War, but one that today seems to take on a different meaning, perhaps an even more bitter one.
For me, it is not so much a song against America as a reflection on the distance between the America we once knew, or imagined, and the one we see today.
This is not America. Or perhaps the real question is what America actually is today.
P.S. — After a conversation with Salvo, a lifelong friend
American predominance in the post-war period was built in part through international institutions, agreements, alliances and rules. Naturally, that system reflected the interests of the dominant power. It would be naive to imagine otherwise. The United States used it to its advantage, shaped the way it operated and, whenever it considered it necessary, violated its rules. Nixon, for example, did not hesitate to end the dollar’s convertibility into gold, helping to dismantle one of the pillars of the Bretton Woods monetary system.
And yet, for all its imperfections and profound contradictions, that international order made it possible to develop forms of cooperation, stabilise economic and political relations, and establish a degree of predictability in relations between states. The Americans certainly benefited enormously from it, but other countries benefited as well. Europe itself, without that system of security and economic relations, would hardly have been able to follow the path it did. And there is something we often forget: part of American strength came precisely from its ability to persuade other countries to participate in an international order in which they could also recognise their own interests.
This is where I see an important difference with the current administration. American power politics is nothing new, nor are disagreements with allies. What seems to be changing is the willingness to preserve the political and institutional conditions that made American hegemony possible in the first place. When relations with allies are treated primarily as business transactions, when security guarantees become the subject of constant pressure, and when tariffs are imposed even on the closest partners, the issue goes beyond the way Washington exercises its power. It concerns the trust on which that power has been built over time.
Of course, I do not think all this began with the current administration, nor do I believe that another president would automatically put things back the way they were. The transformations of American society, the crisis of globalisation and the growing competition with China have much deeper roots. The current President is himself, in part, a product of these developments. Still, I think it would be a mistake to dismiss what is happening simply by pointing out that America has always behaved this way. Historical continuities matter, but they do not erase differences. And the risk that the United States may end up weakening the very network of alliances and relationships that has contributed to its strength strikes me as anything but negligible.