Not Everything Is Bad In The USA

While there have been any number of obituaries written for the status of the US in international affairs recently as well as many, many doom laden forecasts regarding the inevitably downward trajectory for the US on the world's stage, perhaps all these negatives need to be reconsidered. Reconsideration is required when one considers the latest report from Legatum. This group, located in the UK, performs an annual ranking of countries using broader criteria than the usual hard power, hard infrastructure matters of GDP, per capita income, and the like.

On the basis of the broader criteria which include such "soft" features as governance, education, entrepreneurial innovation, and personal freedom, the US ranks number nine among the over one hundred countries rated. More to the point, the US is number one among large population countries defined as those with more than fifty million residents.

Finland is number one. But, it like the rest of the eight which score better than the US, are all small population states. Most, again like Finland, have homogeneous populations. None, not even multi-lingual Switzerland (number two) and bi-lingual Canada (number seven) have the linguistic, ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity of the US. And, none have the emphasis on the individual, the rights, prerogatives, and responsibility of the individual which have characterized the US since the gitty-up.

Of interest as well is the fact that with the exception of Japan (and the questionable semi-autonomous Hong Kong) all of the top twenty are either Western European or Anglophone states. Members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference do not show up until the United Arab Emirates lists at number forty-seven.

That means that the OIC is outranked not only by Israel (number twenty-seven) but even by countries not typically thought of as "rich" whether by "hard" or "soft" criteria such as Estonia (thirty-one), Latvia (thirty-seven) or Chile (thirty-six). While many countries in the top half of the rankings have problems in the categories of "democratic institutions," "personal freedom," and "social capital," none present the dismal picture shown by most of the Muslim dominated countries.

Indonesia, the largest population Muslim state in the world and often proclaimed loudly to be a democracy, comes in at number sixty-one. It is dragged down by such "soft" features as education, health, and "personal freedom" where it ranks number one hundred out of one hundred four countries.

American "allies" in the effort against Islamist jihadists such as Turkey (tied with Russia at number sixty-nine), Egypt (eighty-eight), and Saudi Arabia (eighty-one) are not hallmarks of democracy, personal freedom, enterprise or any of the "soft" power and infrastructure features. Turkey, for example, is at one hundred and three in the "social capital" category, which is far more important than the rather uninspiring name implies.

Showing the depth and breadth of the problems confronting Pakistan as it attempts to deal with its own internal war as well as its role in sustaining the Islamist jihadists in Afghanistan is its ranking: ninety-nine. It hits the middling level only in "economic fundamentals" and "social capital." In the other seven categories it ranks at the bottom of the global well. Even Iran at ninety-four does better with only six criteria falling in the bottom quartile.

The Legitum rankings imply that there is still a profound linkage between the "soft" power and infrastructure features of the US and its role in the world. It is the soft power facets of the American mosaic which provide its most potent set of levers in the increasingly horizontally connected world today--and tomorrow.

While the US may rank rather poorly in the "health" category at twenty-seven (for comparison, considering the health care "reform" bill(s), Canada with its "single payer" approach ranks only five places higher), this factor is far outweighed by the US rankings in enterprise, innovation, social capital, democratic institutions, and personal freedom. While there is room for improvement to be sure, particularly in education where the US is rated at number seven, the fact remains that the US has one heck of a lot going for it.

"If you've got it--flaunt it" is a far better and more accurate approach than is the constant murmurings and occasional shouting of apologies. The Obama administration would be well advised to reconsider its approach to other peoples, other countries--particularly those of the Arab-Muslim world.

They have little to be proud of and much for which apologize to their own citizens as well as to others in the world. To the contrary the US has much to be proud of--and little to apologize for whether to its own residents or people elsewhere in the world.

The Legatum survey might not be perfect as the group openly acknowledges, but its results comport well with the gut feeling a well informed person must have from simply looking at the affairs of the world. It has few surprises beyond that of a European based organization actually finding the US to be worthy of a very high rank.

As the old saying has it, "The truth will out." And so it has.