Australian Left Review
Article Title
Comment - Afghanistan, Self-determination of nations, foreign investment
Abstract
Afghanistan is crystallising, rather than having caused, a new world situation, though of course it makes its own contribution to it. The main features of this new situation are an intense new “Cold War” drive by the United States, backed by Britain and Australia in particular, and the shaping of new alignments, especially between the US and China. This process was already well advanced before Afghanistan. In the last issue of ALR Michael Klare outlined the struggle going on between different US ruling class groupings he characterised as “the Prussians” and "the Traders” . He cites a special issue of Business Week on “the Decline of US Power” whose (Prussian) editors “called for a revitalised military capacity to protect US interests abroad. Without a more activist foreign policy they argued, America’s favored economic standing may soon vanish. ‘The policies set in motion during the Viet Nam war are now threatening the way of life built since World War II’.”