Click here for more debate from Times Online and the Battle for Ideas

Is America still the world’s policeman? Yes, but it’s also a lot more than that. The US occupies an unparalleled place in the international order as, in effect, the alternative to world government. There exists no supranational organisation that exercises sovereignty, and there is highly unlikely to be one in our lifetimes. Democratic nation-states, by virtue of being democratic and therefore responsive to national mores, will not cede the sovereignty necessary for the UN to be able to impose its will on miscreant states. In the absence of world government, the US fills the gap as the provider of global public goods. This role has been cogently analysed by Michael Mandelbaum, the International Relations scholar, in his book The Case for Goliath.

Despite the current ructions in the international financial system, these public goods encompass the economic sphere. They include the provision of an international reserve currency and the principal support for an open trading system. In diplomacy, they include the role of mediator for intractable conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. (America’s role as honest broker in bitter conflicts long predates the much overestimated Jimmy Carter at Camp David. Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation efforts in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.) But the most important global public good is collective security.

The US has been the guarantor of Western European defence since the founding of Nato in 1949. But its role in providing security is geographically far wider. It is not because of the existence of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the proliferation of nuclear weapons has been broadly contained. It is because the US is internationally engaged and extends its protection to its allies. It is far from fanciful to suppose that, if the US were to draw in on itself and become an isolationist power, even so pacific an ally as Japan might seek an independent nuclear deterrent against the aggressive unpredictability of North Korea.

The US’s global dominance is unlikely to be challenged any time soon. The reason is that the world gains immense benefits from the leading role of the US. There are grumbles about US power and complaints about a supposedly easy resort to the use of force. But there is no concerted attempt by any significant group of countries to challenge the US’s dominant position. In these circumstances, the task of policing the international order will continue to devolve to the US. It is the only international actor with the capability of enforcing international law and upholding convention. And by virtue of its democratic character, it is also a legitimate one. There are few global problems that would not benefit from more rather than less US involvement – and we all know it.

---

Join the Debate: Read Tara McCormack on Hold onto the doves of peace

---

Oliver Kamm is a Times leader writer