What I don’t understand is how a “humiliation in front of the world” actually matters. “Face” is supposed to be a uniquely Asian, certainly not a North Atlantic, concept.
It seems that the rise of the “spin-doctor” and the increasing reliance on Public Relations and “soft power” to get one’s way over the past 20-30 years has had the unfortunate side-effect of corrupting those who wield its influence themselves. In popular language, they must be “high on their own supply”.
Well, the truth is that no one likes to lose face--East, West, North, South.
In greater European society, individualism and institutionalized confrontation generates open competition that results in some people losing face, a feature of western culture.
But the US political class and its subordinate European counterparts are sensitive to how American/Western power is perceived--in comparison to China in particular.
Anything that is seen by the global political classes as a defeat for the US--coming after the embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan, and with China getting global cred for doing deals all over the third world--scares the living hell out of the American political class, as it seems to affirm the China rise/US decline narrative that they are trying to fend off.
Yes, DC is drinking its own koolaid or high on its own supply as you suggest. But the West is slowly coming off its high. Cold reality is starting to induce very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Emmanuel Todd's La Défaite de l’Occident discusses this phenomenon at length.
The problem for the US is that it can't be seen to be defeated, but it doesn't have the resources--or is unwilling to marshal them--to prevent Ukraine from losing militarily, and it totally lacks the kind of popular support (for what is a project of the managerial class) that would allow it to credibly threaten military intervention of some kind. So they are lost in a maze of their own devising and in the initial stages of panic. Biden is hoping to exit the stage without any disaster than can be directly attributed to him. Trump appears to think he can snap his fingers and solve the issue, but it's more likely he'll end up being drawn into the fiasco as Biden was.
American policy makers assumed that Putin could be rolled out of Ukraine with ease just as Russia was rolled out of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, but he ultimately called the western bluff in Feb 2022. The US and EU had no plan B and still have no Plan B, and the thought of being seen to lose to Putin is terrifying for them, eating away at their hubristic imagining of "the end of history."
So, yes, loss of face does matter very much in this instance.
No, they don't want WW III. They're utterly unprepared to deal with it--or anything remotely close to it.
They're desperately bobbing and weaving, trying to avoid a humiliation in front of the world which is a very likely outcome.
I have to agree, based on the evidence I see.
What I don’t understand is how a “humiliation in front of the world” actually matters. “Face” is supposed to be a uniquely Asian, certainly not a North Atlantic, concept.
It seems that the rise of the “spin-doctor” and the increasing reliance on Public Relations and “soft power” to get one’s way over the past 20-30 years has had the unfortunate side-effect of corrupting those who wield its influence themselves. In popular language, they must be “high on their own supply”.
Well, the truth is that no one likes to lose face--East, West, North, South.
In greater European society, individualism and institutionalized confrontation generates open competition that results in some people losing face, a feature of western culture.
But the US political class and its subordinate European counterparts are sensitive to how American/Western power is perceived--in comparison to China in particular.
Anything that is seen by the global political classes as a defeat for the US--coming after the embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan, and with China getting global cred for doing deals all over the third world--scares the living hell out of the American political class, as it seems to affirm the China rise/US decline narrative that they are trying to fend off.
Yes, DC is drinking its own koolaid or high on its own supply as you suggest. But the West is slowly coming off its high. Cold reality is starting to induce very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Emmanuel Todd's La Défaite de l’Occident discusses this phenomenon at length.
The problem for the US is that it can't be seen to be defeated, but it doesn't have the resources--or is unwilling to marshal them--to prevent Ukraine from losing militarily, and it totally lacks the kind of popular support (for what is a project of the managerial class) that would allow it to credibly threaten military intervention of some kind. So they are lost in a maze of their own devising and in the initial stages of panic. Biden is hoping to exit the stage without any disaster than can be directly attributed to him. Trump appears to think he can snap his fingers and solve the issue, but it's more likely he'll end up being drawn into the fiasco as Biden was.
American policy makers assumed that Putin could be rolled out of Ukraine with ease just as Russia was rolled out of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, but he ultimately called the western bluff in Feb 2022. The US and EU had no plan B and still have no Plan B, and the thought of being seen to lose to Putin is terrifying for them, eating away at their hubristic imagining of "the end of history."
So, yes, loss of face does matter very much in this instance.
What an excellent explanation. Thanks so much.