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Liberalism In America

Decent Essays
During his lecture, “Clear and Present Safety” Michel A. Cohen discusses what he calls an incontrovertible truth—that America is safer than it has ever been. Cohen argues that the United States spends too much on its military and not enough on other issues such as climate change and pandemic disease. At several intervals Cohen mentions China’s rise as a global rival to the U.S. However, he claims the U.S need not worry about China because China is only focused on regional issues. Cohen also cites that China spends 9 times less on its military than the U.S. Another area where Cohen thinks the world is safer than it realizes, is the creation of new democracies. Cohen makes the argument that there are more democracies in the world than ever before (117) and that there are fewer military conflicts taking place (30, down from 53 in 1992). American citizens and policy makers, according to Cohen, incorrectly believe a false narrative that the world is growing more dangerous; and to support this he cites a study conducted in 2008 by the Center for American…show more content…
Cohen is making an argument for increased Liberalism in the global society. He argues that the world and the U.S is a safer place because of increased membership in global organizations such as the WTO. The book “Global Politics” by Mark A. Boyer states, “Liberals do not believe that acquiring, preserving, and applying power must be or even always is the essence of global politics” (Boyer, p16). Michel A. Cohen, also is a Trans-nationalist and argues that “Economic bonds between states are increasing.” He puts this in a positive light by making the case that these new economic relationships will help promote stability between countries who were previously enemies. Boyer says this is a Trans-nationalist argument because “Transnationalism refers to the range of cross-border political identities and signifies the social, economic, and political links” (Boyer,
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