Thuppahi's Blog

Neville de Silva

As in the last few years, the recent anti-Sri Lanka resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, has also been bisected and trisected yielding a multiplicity of opinions on who did what to whom and why. While triumphant cries might emanate from Washington, the prime mover of this resolution, and even shriller noises from London at what is seen as success in Geneva, more perceptive observers of US foreign policy are likely to take a far more tempered view of US influence in the world today, especially in some regions of the vast Asian continent over which Washington once held sway.

Writing in London’s “Guardian” newspaper over two years ago, respected academic, philosopher and bête noir of many American administrations, Noam Chomsky drew attention to America’s waning global power in a two-part series titled “Losing the world: American decline in perspective.” The Chomsky contribution is mentioned here because he devotes much of the early part of the article to Washington’s declining power and influence in Asia, especially South East Asia, since America’s ignominious retreat from Vietnam after years of trampling on numerous international laws for which nobody at the top of the totem pole of power has been held accountable and punished. Continue reading →