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Foreign policy as an extension of domestic policy
The world's indispensable nation the United States was once quoted from President Bill Clinton, as one that must also renew itself. Clinton's view on globalization provided a mix of domestic and foreign policy into a coherent theme for his global strategy. He used catch phrases when discussing globalization with other world leaders such as globalization being the "equivalent of a force of nature" or as the "world's defining feature".

Many of the global problems Clinton faced overlapped with domestic issues mainly group rivalries, cultural hedonism of the wealthy, seething resentment of the poor, and self-righteous religious antagonisms that stood in the middle blocking his view for a cohesive world strategy. Nevertheless, the world had accepted the new reality that America's dominance in the world was unquestionably dominant and the world community had also accepted it as legitimate. However, a global policy paired with domestic policy was not in tune with the notion that global leadership might require some sacrifice of personal privilege or some limits on national sovereignty. Specially, if favoring the privileged with economic indulgence that negated any efforts to use America's moral and political capital on behalf of a wider commonwealth.
In contrast, the arrogance that has swept the Bush administration was probably best articulated by Ron Suskind in the October edition of The New York Times Magazine as cited by Zbigniew Brzezinski, 2007:
" The United States is an empire now and as such we needed to create our own reality in a reality-based doctrine. This new reality we shall continue to modify according to new and pressing realities-first Iraq, then Syria, then Iran, then Saudi Arabia and so on"
At the same time, the war on terror took on the threatening resonance of a collision with the world of Islam as a whole. Soon, the whole notion of empire rule was condemned by much of the world's public opinion and global solidarity with America plummeted from its historical high point into a bottomless pit. As a result, America's capacity to gain adepts to internationally contentious issue as the Iranian nuclear program suffered gravely. Moreover, distrust has also undermined America's international legitimacy because America had been identified-before the empire doctrine-as a sanctuary for the basic interest of humankind. Therefore, power viewed as illegitimate is inherently weaker.
In mutually compounding ways, material self-indulgence, social shortcomings, and ignorance about the world increase the difficulty of the United States to formulate a global appealing platform for effective world leadership. Failure to recognize that present patterns of consumption will soon collide with increasingly impatient mankind aspirations of equality. Weather through the exploitation of natural resources, excessive energy consumption, indifference to the environment or oversize houses for the wealthy all convey a negative image to the persistent deprivation of much of the world.
Over the past 15 years the U.S. national debt has increased in both absolute totals and as percentage of GDP. The trade deficit has been growing exponentially, net savings have decreased, and the percentage of people without health insurance is bordering on 50 million. The share of income for the rich has increased, while poverty has also increased specially, among minorities. Drug and alcohol use is the upward trend and social mobility in general has declined. To sum up, a disaster is in the making if corrective actions are not implemented soon.

Learn more about this author, Alfonso Llanes.
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