Why America cannot become "an island"

There is a basic contradiction between the slogan Make American Great Again (MAGA) and the desire to realize this project by enclosing the United States within its borders . This would end nearly a century of the centrality of American democracy in its role as bastion of the free world and effective counter to the expansion of illiberal and dictatorial regimes. And this would come at the very time when the Russian and Chinese dictatorships are beginning to put into practice their imperialist intentions, which are anything but democratic.

The idea underlying this project is that by retreating back home, the U.S., with a population of 330 million and neighboring markets such as Canada, Mexico and Latin America, would enjoy greater prosperity and could strengthen itself as an economic superpower while also spending less on defense. 

This choice would mark a reversal of history written with the sacrifice of millions of dead in World War II. The United States would leave Europe to its fate, its commitment to NATO would be greatly reduced, with the presumed certainty that, protected by two oceans and thousands of nuclear warheads, America is unassailable.

One can understand how this scenario might suggest large bangs of the American middle class who have suffered from a globalization that is admittedly backtracking rapidly. Less one understands how business, financial, military, intellectual and geopolitical circles can fail to see the enormous risks behind what is more likely to be a terrible nightmare than a new "American dream."

In the face of not only the economic aggressiveness of Chinese power, the United States should do exactly the opposite: strengthen its ties with Europe, try to unify wherever possible the two markets on the Atlantic shores and become the first shareholder of an economic giant with nearly a billion people and a GDP unreachable by China. In this way the dike against Chinese expansion would be impassable, the strengthened military axis with Europe would nip in the bud any Russian and Chinese imperialist temptations. And it would enshrine a world balance based on prosperity, democracy and freedom solidly guarded and defended by the Western, U.S.-European axis. 

The exaggerated isolationism we hear preached would achieve a number of negative effects: it would exacerbate competition between the U.S. and the EU, weaken NATO, expose Europe in the short term to threats from Russia and the temptation to negotiate more favorable terms with China, which would be strengthened. At that point U.S. entrenchment would serve little purpose. Reduced to a regional superpower, America would no longer be great but more gretta and downsized