What are the global implications of the U.S. government shutdown? In this video, Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, explains why the consequences of the shutdown are even more dire internationally than in the U.S.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
[Diplomatic Courier:] Today [October 1, 2013] is a very unfortunate day in American politics with the government shutting down for the first time in 17 years. In general how does gridlock and such severe polarization in Washington affect American relations and U.S. strength abroad?
[Ian Bremmer:] The funny thing is it affects international relations more than it affects the U.S. domestically. Because ultimately the reason why this is happening in the U.S. is because America’s leaders do not believe that they will experience particular consequences as a consequence of the actions that they’ve taken. It’s clearly very embarrassing that we can’t fund our government.
[DC:] I saw you tweeted about the irony this morning.
[IB:] There’s a lot of irony! But the irony is that it’s precisely because the U.S. is strong, is the largest economy that everyone wants to invest here, that Chinese with $5 million in the bank want to buy a house in New York City and don’t want to keep it in China because they’re scared about the future of that money in China. That allows U.S. policymakers and politicians to continue to just refuse the responsibilities of governance.
Domestically this doesn’t have much of an impact. The government will reopen at some point and most Americans will continue on. The 800,000 that are in the U.S. government that are effectively furloughed—well, not many people really care about them in the same way that not many people cared about the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s forgotten about now. No one ever asks me about it anymore.
But internationally the fact is that American values and American exceptionalism, that the U.S. actually stands in a better way for things that other countries aspire to, that does take a hit.
It helps those that would be willing to subvert a lot of the great things that the U.S., with its friends, has built up over the course of the past decades.
Having seen the United Nations General Assembly meeting last week and met with dozens of delegations, it’s very clear that the perception of the United States internationally has changed. There are a lot of very responsible people that have questions about what the American role in the world is and what we as Americans want it to be. I think it’s a very good question.
See the rest of the Ian Bremmer series:
- Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World
- Obama’s Second Term Foreign Policy Advisors Are the B-Team
- Advice to Obama on Syria and Iran—Syria is a "Disaster"
- The Problem with Global Leadership Today
- If Only This World Leader Could Run for High Office in the U.S.
Check out all of our other videos here or on YouTube.
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Ian Bremmer: The International Impact of the U.S. Government Shutdown
October 9, 2013
What are the global implications of the U.S. government shutdown? In this video, Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, explains why the consequences of the shutdown are even more dire internationally than in the U.S.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
[Diplomatic Courier:] Today [October 1, 2013] is a very unfortunate day in American politics with the government shutting down for the first time in 17 years. In general how does gridlock and such severe polarization in Washington affect American relations and U.S. strength abroad?
[Ian Bremmer:] The funny thing is it affects international relations more than it affects the U.S. domestically. Because ultimately the reason why this is happening in the U.S. is because America’s leaders do not believe that they will experience particular consequences as a consequence of the actions that they’ve taken. It’s clearly very embarrassing that we can’t fund our government.
[DC:] I saw you tweeted about the irony this morning.
[IB:] There’s a lot of irony! But the irony is that it’s precisely because the U.S. is strong, is the largest economy that everyone wants to invest here, that Chinese with $5 million in the bank want to buy a house in New York City and don’t want to keep it in China because they’re scared about the future of that money in China. That allows U.S. policymakers and politicians to continue to just refuse the responsibilities of governance.
Domestically this doesn’t have much of an impact. The government will reopen at some point and most Americans will continue on. The 800,000 that are in the U.S. government that are effectively furloughed—well, not many people really care about them in the same way that not many people cared about the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s forgotten about now. No one ever asks me about it anymore.
But internationally the fact is that American values and American exceptionalism, that the U.S. actually stands in a better way for things that other countries aspire to, that does take a hit.
It helps those that would be willing to subvert a lot of the great things that the U.S., with its friends, has built up over the course of the past decades.
Having seen the United Nations General Assembly meeting last week and met with dozens of delegations, it’s very clear that the perception of the United States internationally has changed. There are a lot of very responsible people that have questions about what the American role in the world is and what we as Americans want it to be. I think it’s a very good question.
See the rest of the Ian Bremmer series:
- Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World
- Obama’s Second Term Foreign Policy Advisors Are the B-Team
- Advice to Obama on Syria and Iran—Syria is a "Disaster"
- The Problem with Global Leadership Today
- If Only This World Leader Could Run for High Office in the U.S.
