US Pullout from Afghanistan, Iran Deal to Lead to Decline of American Empire

Max Parry, a journalist and political analyst, shared his views on the decline of the United Sates in an interview with the secretariat of the 2nd International Conference on the Decline of the United States: The Post-American World, in which he said, “In the last few years we've really started to witness the zenith of the prediction about the decline of the US,” Parry remarked, “where it really does appear to be the end of American imperialism and full spectrum dominance. With the US debacle in Afghanistan and takeover by the Taliban, after 20 years of war and $2 trillion depleted from the US Treasury, I think the sun is finally setting on that American Century.”

“Francis Fukuyama predicted in his book End of History,” Parry said, adding, “that with the dissolution of the USSR and the US being the last remaining global superpower, the history will end; and 30 years later, it's pretty clear that he was a false prophet”.

“Washington is finally strategically overreached and overstretched with its endless war fiascos abroad,” he said. “And internally, at home, American infrastructure is crumbling. Its productive power has been outsourced and de-industrialized, and its debts are skyrocketing every year. So it's only a matter of time before its global competitors in Russia and China and the developing economies in the Global South and the rise of other regional and global powers that have been vying for power and influence finally outmaneuver the US.”

“Not long after the Taliban retook Kabul following the American drawdown,” Parry also pointed out, “another very key development occurred in September at the 20th annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Tajikistan, where we saw Iran become a member, just six months after it already signed a historic quarter-century cooperation agreement with China.”

“China is already the number one economic power in the world in terms of GDP,” he added. “And by the end of the decade, I believe we could even see China become the top power in the world, geopolitically speaking,” he continued.

“In the face of US unilateralism and the maximum pressure sanctions, which the Biden regime has thus far refused to lift even with the JCPOA talks in Vienna and in the larger context of the US pullout from Afghanistan,” Parry went on to say, “we're truly witnessing multilateralism triumph in Eurasia, where Iran is bypassing the unilateralism of the US and becoming economically integrated with Eurasia. And we can see the geopolitical balance of power shifting away from Washington towards the Moscow-Beijing-Tehran axis. This is a very significant development.”

“With the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Iran’s entrance into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” he further maintained, “we are really seeing a multipolarity emerging and, Putin’s and Xi’s speeches at this conference really spelled it out clearly that the geopolitical balance of power is really shifting. And multilateralism is going to be the way of the future.”

“But with this disastrous AUKUS security pact scandal, where France is furious with the United States, and not to mention the tensions between the US and Germany over the North Stream 2 pipeline,” Parry noted, “everywhere we're seeing a rift within NATO. And I think we're really witnessing the decline of empire across the board with recent world events. And to me, these events are a clear sign of US hegemony in decline.”

“What reason does anyone have to trust the United States?” he asked. “The United States doesn't have any friends, only policies; it doesn't have any real commitment. So what reason do its own proxies even have to trust it? No one trusts the United States at this point. Besides America’s pullout from Afghanistan, Iran deal was certainly a factor affecting the credibility of the United States.”

Parry said that Biden’s policy towards Iran’s deal and not lifting the sanctions on Iran or trying to make changes to the accord, which President Raisi has made very clear is a red line, is going to hinder any kind of re-entry into the JCPOA. “Raisi is absolutely right to stick to his guns,” he added, “and, in my opinion, to have a red line that there should not be any more changes to the accord.”

“Not only did Trump scrap the deal, but also assassinated Suleimani,” he stated. “And even though Iranian kept up their end of the bargain, they're always expected to make the first move. I'm not sure what's going to happen with these talks in Vienna when they resume, but I definitely think that the pullout from Afghanistan and the position that Biden is in, right now, has a lot of implications for those talks going forward. And we can only hope that the weakened influence that the US now has over Europe maybe influence them to come back to the negotiating table if they want to get in good graces.”

“In the current circumstances certainly with the pandemic, China has shown a fast economic recovery,” he added, “whereas the United States had been hit really hard, not just in terms of lives lost, but economically. It's just been totally devastated by the pandemic. Washington has pursued endless wars abroad while on the home front, the United States doesn't have any manufacturing power.”

“It is very apparent that China is going to exceed the US as the world's biggest economy and trading country,” he said. “And even geopolitically to some extent.”

“Obviously, all empires historically decline,” Parry further noted. “But I think the rapid rate the United States has been declining with is incredible to witness. I don't think anybody could have predicted that it would happen quite this fast. But I think that the world needs to have a distribution of power where more than 1, 2, or even more countries have equal amounts of influence, whether it's militarily, economically, or even culturally.”

“The world is, every day, becoming less American-centric and more multipolar in nature. I think it was inevitable,” he added.

“As regards Iran’s case,” Parry concluded, “I think this country is building a lasting and comprehensive partnership with the emerging global powers like China. It is looking to the East, with the strategic partnership they signed in March and then joining the SCO. And this is exactly how they will stand to benefit and override the unilateralism of the US which has been dead set on getting back in Iran since the Shah was deposed in 1979. Iran has also been improving its relations with Russia. It's already conducting joint military exercises with both China and Russia.”

The 2nd International Conference on the Decline of the United States: The Post-American World will be held on November 2, 2021, by Imam Hussein Comprehensive University and the Secretariat of the Expediency Discernment Council, in cooperation with the universities and research institutes.

For more information, interested parties may see the conference website at www.usdecline.ir and the virtual pages of the conference secretariat on social media at @usdecline.