A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE : THE US ELECTION OF 2020

Well the US elections are finally done. The world watched with bated breath as millions of Americans cast their vote and elected the leader of the oldest democracy on earth.

The American elections, while important to Americans (well...duh), are also crucial to the rest of the world. As the country that has the most powerful military on earth and one of the largest nuclear stockpiles, suffice to say the US elections have far reaching consequences.

Add to that a pandemic and we have a pretty dramatic election. This year we witnessed Americans coming together as a community and voting in record breaking numbers.

Now regardless of who you voted for, this election was dramatic to say the least. But in this article, I am going to look at the elections from an outsider's perspective. An international perspective. 

The election was in all honesty the highlight of the year for me (this either means I have a really sad life or that 2020 has just been a bad year). Now I am from India and let me tell you, people were invested. Our local media even covered the election live! I pulled all nighters in the middle of exams just so I could watch live coverage of the elections. Yes, I like politics. Yes, I am a bit insane.

But this article isn’t about that. It's about what this election means for the international community.It is about some of the issues and situations that might arise in the coming years and might have to be dealt with by the US government. Key word - MIGHT. Now a quick disclaimer before I start- while the results of the election has been called, owing to the political situation in the US, I will not be referring to either of the candidates throughout this article and will instead be focusing on what I think are some of the most important things which will be impacted on a global scale due to the election results (as called by the Associate Press). I am neither a political scientist nor someone who is officially qualified to assess political situations. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt… or maybe a tablespoon of it.

DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPE

So Europe, one of the most crazy and busy parts of the world, will undoubtedly be affected by the results of this election.

One reason for this is caused by the fact that Angela Merkel, widely regarded as the de facto  (in practice) leader of Europe, will no longer be heading the CDU and will thus not be entering another race to be the chancellor of Germany. She has served as the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and played key roles in establishing the euro zone, dealing with the migration crisis, the Ukraine crisis and the Greek debt crisis (to varying degrees of success). With her confirming that she will be stepping down from the position she has held for over 15 years, this leaves Europe and the west in general with a power vacuum. This by itself isn’t necessarily dangerous. 

Germany needs new politicians just like any other country and Chancellor Merkel knows this. However, the rise of far right parties and the questioning of democracy as an efficient means of governance and a general shift in tone all over the world creates an instability that may be good or bad (depending on your personal political beliefs). The steadyfast leadership that Chancellor Merkel provided (regardless of anyone's political beliefs) was a sort of relief but with that gone, it's now up to other western leaders to take up the responsibility which they undoubtedly will. 

THE ASIAN DILEMA 

This is of course something that has been on the forefront of international politics for a while recently. With the tensions between US and China rising and the pandemic at large, Asia is not exactly looking as peaceful as it should be. But Asia has always been a melting pot of different cultures and will always remain so. It's incredible diversity has always been something to be proud of. 

The US-China trade wars that started last year already wrong footed US relations with China and the pandemic certainly didn’t help things. Not to mention, China and India’s rising tensions in the Himalayas is a concern as well. The way the new US government handles these issues will be of monumental importance not just for Asia but for the world as a whole.


EAST ASIA

This has been one of the regions on earth where the US has a long history of involvement. The most pressing issues in this region have been surprisingly consistent for the US and that is probably going to remain the same for the foreseeable future.

However this is also a region where things need to be handled carefully so regardless of the decision the US government comes to - to reduce involvement or not - will need to be carefully evaluated while taking both US and east asian sentiment into account. Taking the beliefs and sentiments of the east asian people into account is just as important as taking the opinions of US citizens into account.

While these are by no means the only situations that may arise, these are a quick look at some of the more obvious ones.

That's it for now! Part two of this article is coming next month discussing matters on South America, Africa and Oceania.

• NJ