Navigating the Global Commons

The phrase of the moment, for obvious reasons, is “Make America Great Again.” As it turns out, however, there may be more than one way to make America great again. The Trump way, it is becoming clear, is to do it at the expense of everybody else. Trump has long perceived a zero-sum world where winners have not really won unless somebody else has lost. That philosophy is antithetical to the way trade negotiators normally approach their task, which is to seek win-win outcomes where both sides gain something. One veteran negotiator once told me that the real trick is not only to convince the other side that they won but that they won more than you did.

That philosophy has not been evident in the current round of trade talks, which the administration has structured to ensure all the concessions are made by the other countries, and the only U.S. concession is to lower its threatened tariffs. Of course, as usual, actual results have varied, with the occasional U.S. concession thrown in, as in the UK deal.

There is, however, a better way to make America great again. It involves not just adopting a win-win mentality but also an understanding of and respect for the global commons.

Historically, people have not paid much attention to things they did not think affected them directly. As we have learned more about how the world, both natural and political, actually works, and as global economic integration has brought people closer together, we have realized that many issues transcend political boundaries and affect everybody.

Most of them are related to health or the environment. Covid-19 did not stop at the Chinese border. Air pollution does not stop at the border, so this summer, New Yorkers and others in New England have inhaled the smoke and ash from Canadian wildfires. Polluted air from Chinese coal burning eventually makes its way across the Pacific to the West Coast. Damming rivers to create hydroelectric power has effects on agriculture and fish in downstream countries.

Speaking of fish, they don’t pay much attention to national borders or to territorial waters. Overfishing, particularly massive industrial overfishing, is having a devastating impact on fish stocks worldwide. The fish are also harmed, as are people, by the proliferation of plastics and microplastics in the ocean and the atmosphere.

Climate change makes all of that worse, and it demonstrates that though the problem is global, the impact is unequal. For Vanuatu and other island nations, the threat is existential due to rising seas, but solutions are beyond their capacity. Saving them requires collective action. The Trump version of making America great again has no room for that problem. They’re not Americans, and they’re far away. The residents of the Outer Banks and southern Florida, however, are nearby and face the same problem, but we can’t stop the sea from rising only on the U.S. Atlantic coast.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a global public health problem, but it has also had serious trade implications as countries scrambled to get scarce protective equipment and deal with severe supply chain disruptions. Producing and distributing vaccines raised intellectual property issues that are still the subject of ongoing negotiations at the World Trade Organization.

The reality of global commons issues is that they affect everybody and can only be fixed by everybody. Actions by a single nation don’t do the job. Thus, it is a mistake for the Trump administration to pull out of multilateral organizations formed to address global commons issues like the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement on climate change. If he leaves the World Trade Organization, that will only compound the error.

Simply belonging to them, however, is not enough. Really making America great again requires leadership, and smaller countries look to larger ones for it, even when they say they don’t welcome it. As the United States turns from international diplomacy to bullying, countries will look elsewhere for leaders, most likely to China. Ceding leadership of the global commons to China is not a path to making America great again. It’s a path to isolation as the world moves on without us.

Presidential elections for at least the past 45 years have turned on a single question asked of voters: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Challengers who can convince voters that the answer is “no” win. I submit that is the wrong question. The right one is: “Has the president made sure your children and their children will be better off?” It is human nature for people to worry about themselves and today rather than their children and tomorrow, but it is the latter that will determine our future. Ironically, the people who understand that best are immigrants who came here knowing they would be starting at the bottom but came anyway because it would mean a better life for their children and grandchildren. If we really want to make America great, we should elect presidents and other officials who take the long view and plan not just for next month but for future generations.

William A. Reinsch is senior adviser and Scholl Chair emeritus with the Economics Program and Scholl Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Trade continues to be the hottest policy topic in Washington, which is why we’re bringing back our ⁠Crash Course: Trade Policy with the Trade Guys⁠ this fall. If you missed our spring course, now is the perfect time to register. The course runs October 8–9 at CSIS or via Zoom. Registration is open until October.