Highlights

New Delhi: With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, forecasts that the coronavirus could push over 132 million more people into chronic hunger by the end of 2020. This figure will be over and above the existing 690 million undernourished people, the study says. This setback further weakens the possibilityto achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Two, which aims for zero hunger by 2030, the report concludes. Among various government schemes on food and nutrition, an important aspect of helping Indias children meet their nutritional needs, is the governments flagship Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme.

The MDM Scheme has played a significant role in increasing enrolment and improving attendance of children in the schools, but it has far deeper implications as it is one of the crucial ways to ensure the nutritional security of children. As per the government data, in the year 2018-19, MDM scheme served about 9.17 crore children in 11.35 lakh schools across the country. However, the scheme has faced massive challenges, when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced and schools and Anganwadis were shut down.

Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had announced when the lockdown was imposed, that the mid-day meals will be provided to students even during the lockdown and the subsequent summer vacations.

Mr Pokhriyal had also announced an increased allocation for the smooth distribution of the mid-day meals with an additional expenditure of about Rs 1,700 crores.

Also Read: COVID-19 Crisis: Deaths Related To Hunger Among Children May Increase By 12.8 Lakh This Year Due To The Pandemic

He further said that in wake of COVID-19, the annual central allocation of cooking cost (or procurement of pulses, vegetables, oil, spices and fuel) under the mid-day meal scheme has beenenhanced to Rs 8,100 crore from Rs 7,300 crore allocated for April 2020, an increment of nearly 11 per cent.

While the top-level has made the necessary arrangements and allocation for the smooth and uninterrupted nutrition of the children via mid-day meals. What is the status on the ground?

Antaryami Dash, Nutrition Head from Save The Children Foundation, tells NDTV that while the governments aredoing their job and forming policies, the implementation powers remain at the district level.

The HRD Ministry in order to ensure each child gets the meal that they are entitled to give all the states and districts across the nation three options either serve hot meals to their doorstep, provide them monthly ration kits or provide them the money conversions also known as Food Security Allowances. Lets assume a mid-day meal costs about Rs. 10-15 a day for a kid, so for a month it will be approximately Rs 300, so each beneficiary is entitled to this sum. But the entire implementation of MDM in this condition, depends upon the individual setup of each state. So, if the collector, state authorities are on their toes, they might do it well, if they want to. Im not saying throughout the states children are not receiving MDM, Im sure they are receiving in some places but there will be inter-district variations as well as intra-block variation. Everything comes down to their administration and their will and zest, thats just how Indian development programmes function on the ground.

Mr Dash said that through Save The Children Foundations concurrent assessment across 15 states, covering 7,235 respondents, they found that around 40 per cent of the eligible children have not received the mid day meals during this lockdown. He further said that these 15 states and UTs, include Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, NCT of Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Through another non-profit organisation, Roti Abhiyan, NDTV reached out to some children, who are beneficiaries of MDM, belonging to a few of the above-mentioned state, to find out more about the on-ground situation of implementation.

Also Read: India Observed A Decline Of 60 Million Undernourished People In 2019, Reveals The Latest UN Report

In Delhi, 8-year-old Gudiya is a resident of Lal Gumbad Camp, near Panscheel Park where she lives in a five member family. Before lockdown, her mother used to work as a domestic help and her father worked as a delivery boy in Zomato, however at present, both of them are out of work. Gudiya and her siblings, all older than her, study in a government school, where they were provided with MDM. Her mother told NDTV that she hasnt received any mid-day meals or compensation,

Due to certain reasons, I do not have a ration card and we have not received any money or MDM since the lockdown. We are struggling to make ends meet. I asked in my kids school about the MDM but our area is sealed as it is a containment zone, so we have never received anything. Even my sister who lives in a camp near Rohini and has 2 children, says that they havent received MDM or money for MDM.

On the other hand, 7-year-old Rishi from Bihars holy town of Gaya said that they received their mid-day meal in the month of April which stopped by May. His mother told NDTV,

We did get the MDM in April, consisting OF eggs and even milk but by May, our school authority told us that a few people tested positive from their MDM team so they have stopped cooking food and will send us money. We are waiting for money but until today I havent received any money.

11-year-old Paulimi from Durgapur in West Bengal has received her mid-day meals, her mother said,

Paulimi received her school meals until June and for the month of June we received Rs 350 in my husbands account and we were told by her principal that its for her lunch. In July, we have received ration, as the principal of his school told us that this month theyre distributing rations. I asked them why the variations, so they said that they want to provide in whichever way it is convenient for them each month.

11- year-old, Vijay Kumar from Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, is the son of a daily wager. Vijays mother Meena told NDTV,

It is very tough time for poor families like ours and our financial condition does not allow us to feed our children fruits, milk or other nutritious food items. Ever since the lockdown, my son is not getting the nutritious meals that he used to get in school. The distribution of dry ration and security compensation by the state government is yet to be provided to us. The security compensation and dry ration will prove to be very beneficial in our lives as it will help to feed the entire family.

Also Read: Fight Against COVID-19: Government Of Tripura Distributes Vitamin C-Rich Fruits For Free To Boost Immunity

According to nutrition experts, for a large chunk of the children of India mid-day meal is their only source of nutrition in the day, therefore the importance of mid-day meals for children cannot be undermined. Talking to these families, it is a mixed record, wherein many places children are neither receiving their mid-day meals (MDM), nor any Take Home Rations (THR), or even reimbursement in cash.

According to UNs World Food Programme (WFP), even though MDM is the best route to food and nutrition security for children, the government is issuing extra food rations and inclusion of pulses for the next five months to families under PMGKY (Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana) during COVID lockdown. This will be helpful to meet their food needs. A spokesperson from WFP told NDTV,

All in all, most of the States and Union territories in the country are implementing the mid-day meal in line with the above-mentioned government guidance. For instance, in Odisha, where we work with the state government, students were distributed dry ration for 3 months in advance through Public Distribution System outlets. Coupon with unique ID was assigned to them and the students or their parents would draw rations (rice and other commodities) from Fair Price Shops (FPS) on the production of coupons. The coupons will to be later reconciled to settle the accounts with the FPS owners.

However, supporting Mr Dashs point, WFP also highlighted that fact that India is a large country and the quality of implementation may vary from State to State and even within a State, from district to district. The spokesperson added,

WFP India has been tracking the implementation of both the Mid-day meal scheme as well as the food component of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme at State level since the beginning of the pandemic through media reports, government websites and telephonic calls to government counterparts and development partners. Media reports about the situation in the state of Bihar, where failure to implement delivery of mid-day meals in-line with the government guidance, led the children in certain districts to start waste collection or begging to survive, was unnerving.

Also Read:Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana To Provide Free Rations During Coronavirus Lockdown Extended, What Does It Mean For People On The Ground?

Another important factor, which is a significant on-ground reality for distributing the midday meal, is the disparity in urban and rural areas. While in the urban areas, the distribution of MDM has remained difficult and negligible, rural areas have not really faced major challenges until now.

NDTV reached out to Nisha an ASHA worker from the village Majawada near Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Nisha told us that all the ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers and other volunteers associated with the Anganwadis and schools are responsible for home delivering ration kits for the children. She explains,

We have a list of all the children who attend Anganwadi and schools. We get the ration kits consisting 2 kg wheat and 1 kg Chana Dal and we are all responsible for delivering these kits to each and every student in every 25 days.

Another ASHA worker, Shanta Garg from Dulawato Ka Guda village in UP, tells NDTV that they are not just responsible for delivering mid-day meals, but also to check childrens growth. She said,

In order to ensure the children are getting optimum nutrition, we also check their weight, height and any symptoms for COVID disease when we visit them to deliver the ration kits.

While the system seems to run smoothly in rural areas, in the national capital, the MDM has not been served at all, says Amrita Johri from Roti Abhiyan, a Delhi-based NGO. She said,

NGO Mahila Ekta Manch filed a Public Interest Litigation in Delhi High court, in which IT sought directions to the Delhi government to provide cooked midday meals or food security allowances to eligible children during the COVID-19 lockdown when schools in the national capital are shut.

Also Read:Fighting COVID-19: Plant-Based Diet Can Boost Resistance Against Invading Pathogens, Say Experts

The Delhi government had on June 30 told the bench that funds for providing mid-day meals to children in its schools were yet to be received. However, The Centre informed the Delhi High Court on Monday that it has released over Rs 27 crore to the AAP government as recurring central assistance under the mid-day meal (MDM) scheme. The counsel appearing for the Centre said Rs 9 crore was released on April 29 and over Rs 18 crore was released on May 1 and sought time to file an affidavit on it.

While this has turned into a political he said-she said, at the end of the day it Is the children who are suffering without the meals. How are we to achieve the Zero Hunger target by 2030 is this continues? It is no secret how big of a crisis malnutrition in India is.

Mr Dash explained his opinion on the disparity between urban and rural areas, as he said that the problem mainly is not being able to reach the beneficiaries due to COVID-19.

Earlier, even us the people working with non-profits could easily visit the children on the ground. But now we also have to monitor and maintain records on telephones due to the coronavirus. Moreover, most of the organisations are not able to reach people who are distressed, in person. But when it comes to MDM, rural areas, until now, were doing better with MDM, as Anganwadi workers can easily track and visit these households which they do on a routine basis. The lockdown instructions were followed and adhered to in the urban areas more than the rural areas.

He further added that in urban areas, issues being faced by administrations were that either some were the children of migrant workers who have either gone back or are unable to be tracked. But the main issue is that most urban areas, according to Mr Dash, are containment zones, hotspots, where curfews and lockdowns are frequently happening.

So it is difficult to go there and distribute mid-day meals because these are locked up places, he added.

Also Read:Opinion: Nourishing The Undernourished In Quarantine During COVID-19 Times

However he said that rural areas may face issues now as gradually, we are seeing the prevalence of COVID spreading towards the rural areas.

I think they will face the problem now because initially to start with, from April to June, it was only the urban areas which were the epicentre of the issues. But due to the migrant population returning home, as one of the important factor, the virus is spreading more and more in the rural areas and we fear that children might face issues there, beginning now. However, Im pretty positive that rural areas still are easier to manage as compared to urban areas.

Soha Moitra, Regional Director, Child Rights and You (CRY), talked to NDTV about the MDM programme been badly hit. She asserts that MDM is a crucial nutritional support programme for many school-going children to supplement their dietary needs to combat malnutrition.

Unavailability of a freshly cooked nutritious meal might leave a long-term effect on a childs development. Even if the distribution of dry ration and food security compensation is the new substitute to MDM, there is a need to develop a monitoring system at panchayat level to ensure that marginalised families are actually benefitted with the same.

Mr Antaryami Dash says that the country cannot afford to see an increase in an already huge burden of child malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies among children.

Thus, further realignment is required for MDM service delivery strategies with clearly more focus in urban areas to increase the coverage, Mr Dash asserts.

WFP highlights that with the on-going food support, what is missing is the diversification of food rations and inclusion of cash for women to buy vegetables and eggs can provide further support.

Given such a huge migrant crisis and an ongoing pandemic, it will be crucial to closely monitor the food and nutrition situation among vulnerable communities and provide appropriate responses, if needed. The values and advantages of Mid-Day meals are multiple and immense, and we trust that these programmes will restart immediately, when the schools reopen, the WFP spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure the mid-day meals are received by every child entitled to it in urban areas, WFP suggests that the School Management Committee (SMC) and/or Parents Teacher Associations (PTA) in these times will need to step up and take control of the monitoring.

NDTV DettolBanega Swasth Indiacampaign is an extension of the five-year-old BanegaSwachh India initiative helmed by Campaign AmbassadorAmitabh Bachchan. Itaims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country.In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases.The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to preventmaternal and child mortality,fightmalnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention throughvaccines. Importance of programmes likePublic Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyanand the role ofAganwadis and ASHA workersare also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of theSwachh Bharat Abhiyanlaunched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workersandmenstrual hygiene.

1,88,09,199Cases

67,47,115Active

1,13,54,419Recovered

7,07,665Deaths

Coronavirus has spread to 188 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 1,88,09,199 and 7,07,665 have died; 67,47,115 are active cases and 1,13,54,419 have recovered as on August 6, 2020 at 4:00 am.

19,64,536 56282Cases

5,95,501 9257Active

13,28,336 46121Recovered

40,699 904Deaths

In India, there are 19,64,536 confirmed cases including 40,699 deaths. The number of active cases is 5,95,501 and 13,28,336 have recovered as on August 6, 2020 at 2:30 am.

DistrictCases

Akola757

Aurangabad1974

Dhule228

Jalgaon1039

Mumbai45478

Mumbai Suburban5363

Nagpur692

Nashik1575

Palghar1421

Pune9920

Satara629

Solapur1291

Thane13660

Yavatmal150

Ahmednagar190

Amravati291

Beed54

Bhandara41

Buldhana88

Chandrapur32

Hingoli208

Jalna201

Kolhapur646

Latur139

Nanded176

Nandurbar42

Parbhani78

Raigad1462

Ratnagiri350

Sangli145

Gadchiroli42

gondia69

Osmanabad125

Sindhudurg114

Wardha11

Washim13

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How Are The Children In India Receiving Their Mid-Day Meals Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic? | Nutrition - Swachh India NDTV

Turf wars and frequent transfer of bureaucrats have made the handling of COVID difficult in Bengaluru. Pic: Javed Anees, Wikimedia Commons

Read up. You really should. There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before. These are famous lines from Arthur Conan Doyles A Study in Scarlet. A problem or its solution have all transpired before. But have we missed the lessons?

It has been nine months since the first case of COVID-19 was reported from Wuhan, China in November 2019. The problem took a life of its own and knocked on Indias shores through Kerala in January 2020. It became Bengalurus problem in March of 2020.

While Bengaluru started out well in keeping the pandemic under check, we later slipped into chaos. We have struggled with its management. Lockdowns, restrictions, dissemination of information, healthcare we have wrestled with every aspect so badly that Henri Fayol is calling from his grave, offeringfree lessons in management. Because at the end of the day, effective management is the only thing that will allow us to beat this problem.

But where did we go so wrong? This isnt the first time our city has faced a health crisis. The bubonic plague of 1898 wasnt minuscule. What are the lessons we missed from history? What are the parallels?

I return to some of Fayols 14 principles of management, because sometimes we have to start from the basics:

When the bubonic plague broke out in Bengaluru in 1898, K Madhava Rao was appointed to the newly-created post of Plague Commissioner. He took over in 1898 and held the post till 1901, before being promoted as the Diwan of Mysore. In 1895, Ronald Ross, Nobel laureate in physiology, was recalled to Bengaluru on special sanitary duty to contain the frequent cholera outbreaks at the time. He stayed on until he was posted to Secunderabad in 1897.

Lets look at the current scenario. City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao was transferred in less than a year (he had taken over in August 2019). This is in line with the spate of transfers we have been seeing of late. A fortnight ago, the government had abruptly transferred about 60 IAS officers and 200 KAS officers who were involved with various levels of COVID management.

I elucidate on some of them here. The BBMP core team that led the fight against COVID included five IAS officers Dr M Lokesh, Ravikumar Surpur, D Randeep, Hephsiba Rani Korlapati and Basvaraj led by BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar. M Lokesh has been transferred as Excise Commissioner, and Ravikumar was posted to the Agriculture Department. BBMP Commissioner Anil Kumar too was shunted out less than a year after he took over. Captain P Manivannan, who was the Principal Secretary of both the Labour Department and the Department of Information & Public Relations, was similarly shunted out.

The transfers of officers who were part of the core team that initially controlled the pandemic, certainly throws a spanner in the works. But if that isnt enough to derail management, the officers who replaced them also hold other portfolios.

In 1898, the special post of Plague Commissioner was created so that there would be focused attention on the problem. Whereas N Manjunath Prasad, who just took over as the BBMP commissioner, already has two other portfolios to manage. So, forget allowing for focused attention, we dont even have a whole Commissioner. What we have is one-third of a Commissioner to deal with a problem of this magnitude.

Similarly, when Maheshwar Rao who took over from Manivannan, he was already the Principal Secretary, Department of MSME and Mines. He was brought in at the height of the migrant crisis, when the Labour Department was struggling to deal with the situation on the ground.

Reynold Ross, when he linked the poor sanitary condition of the city to the cholera outbreaks, brought out a document emphasising the short-sightedness of the government in waste management. Short-sightedness of governments is a problem even today, hampered further by political interests.

A large part of the recent transfers have been attributed to the turf war between MLAs and corporators ahead of the BBMP elections. The supposed turf war between R Ashok and C Ashwathnarayan, the corporators demanding a more visible role, are all not helping create solutions.

Similarly, we can examine each of Fayols principles Scalar Chain, Order, Initiative, Esprit de Corps, Unity of direction, Unity of command, etc. and find enough examples of how each of these have been breached. The flareup between Ashwathnarayan and Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, BSYs anger with Anil Kumar you dont have to look to hard, its all right there. Writing them all would make this article too long.

Fayols principles no longer hold prime position in management texts because they are considered common sense these days. One has to wonder just how common they are.Because it seems like we are currently writing the script for Kissa Kursi Ka Part 2 the political satire movie from 1977 that was banned and whose prints were burnt for mocking the then-government.

The movie, a poor mans Jaane Bhi Yaaron, has a plot very reminiscent of the mismanagement of our times. In the movie, the government is dealing with a rat problem. Its harbinger scheme of buying cats from a foreign country in exchange for Indian dogs goes kaput because corruption has meant that no cats were delivered. They then come up with another solution offering a certificate and cash prize to people depending on the number of dead rats they produce.Needless to say, the idea goes to hell in a handbasket very quickly, and chaos ensues. It is a predicament like the one we find ourselves in.

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"COVID response: Bengaluru is overlooking every management lesson from history" | - Citizen Matters, Bengaluru

New economic imperatives are forcing nations to make a choice.

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) COVID-19 has not only presented the global economy with its greatest public health challenge in over a century, but also likely killed off the notion of Americas unipolar moment for good. That doesnt mean full-on autarky or isolationism but, rather, enlightened selfishness, which allows for some limited cooperation. Donald Trumps ongoing threats to impose additional tariffs on a range of EU exports are exacerbating this trend as the old post-World War II ties between the two regions continue to fray.

Even the possibility of a Biden administration is unlikely to presage a reversion to the status quo ante. Regionalization and multipolarity will be the order of the day going forward.

Many will regard these developments as chiefly driven by geopolitical prerogatives. But over time, the driving engine of the process will be a combination of maturing technologies that are rewriting the laws of profitability in manufacturing and production for advanced economies. The various capacities that enabled a far-flung global supply chain and sent the economies of Asia into hyperdrive over the past 40 years have continued to mature.

The rise of China, South Korea and Japan in this period is just a phase of a larger series of advances that are now likely to become more distributed and at the same time reshuffle the geopolitical trend lines we currently experience.

The reshuffling is coming in large part because Americas historic military dominance has less relevance in a world where the new forms of competition place greater weight on access to advanced research and technologies, rather than the projection of brute military force (especially given the increasing proliferation of nuclear technologies and the rise of asymmetric warfare).

Furthermore, the lack of American manufacturing capacity has left it open to a significant loss of influence to the benefit of other regions, notably China (in Asia), and Germany (in the European Union). China in particular will likely remain both a geopolitical and economic rival to the United States for the foreseeable future, especially as it already supersedes the United States in some areas of technology (such as 5G), and is increasingly becoming the locus of economic activity in Asia. As yet, Asia is by no means a cohesive economic or strategic bloc (such as the European Union), especially given the ongoing American influence in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

But longer term, it is hard to believe that an independent democratic Japan would embrace a foreign policy stance that risks antagonizing a country of almost 1.4 billion people with nukes. According to some projections, by 2050 Japan will likely constitute about one-eighth of Chinas GDP, South Korea much less.

On the basis of that size disparity, strategic triangulation is a non-starter. Japan will no more be able to balance China than Canada today can contain the United States. It is likewise difficult to envisage Seoul continuing to have its own relations with the North being continuously subject to the vagaries of Pentagon politics in D.C. Heightening instability on the Korean peninsula is hardly in the long-term interests of either Seoul or Pyongyang.

By the same token, the idea of a broad but shallow trilateral United States-EU-Japan bloc against China is also a fantasy because the European Union, like Japan, increasingly finds its own interests clashing with those of the U.S. These tensions have manifested themselves fully in the current dispute over Huawei, Chinas largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer. The Europeans, especially Germany, may well be too invested in China to side with the United States in this particular dispute given its strong pre-existing commercial ties with the former, as Wolfgang Munchaus Eurointelligence highlights:

China is Germanys biggest trading partner. Merkel continues to seek dialoguewith China and insisted that ties with the country are of strategic importance to the EU. If this can be called a strategy it is clearly motivated by economic interests. These days, German car makers are dependent on the Chinese market,where record sales in Q2 compensated for the fallout from the pandemic in other markets, the FAZ reports.

This also applies in the specific case of Huawei, where the U.S. is spearheading an attempt to limit the Chinese companys global reach on national security grounds. Berlin in particular is seeking to balance the tensions of preserving an increasingly fraying relationship with the U.S. versus safeguarding emerging German commercial interests in China. The Merkel government is expected to make a definitive decision on Huawei by the autumn when the German parliament reconvenes; this will have significant implications for Europe as a whole, as an increasing number of EU member states are moving away from the firms 5G wares.

German political opinion remains sharply divided on the issue of Huawei. The decision is also complicated by the fact that Deutsche Telekom, a 32%-state-owned company, is the countrys largest mobile provider and already relies heavily on Huawei equipment. It has lobbied strongly against any action that would make it harder for it to roll out 5G, according to the Economist. If the Berlin government fails to follow the lead of the United Kingdom (which recently reversed an earlier decision to incorporate Huawei equipment in its growing 5G infrastructure), it will send a very powerful political signal in terms of how Germany prioritizes its long-term interests, which are no longer axiomatically tied to the U.S.

However Germany decides on Huawei, Atlanticism as a concept is largely dead in Europe. Even before the onset of the pandemic, for example, Italy had already become the first European country to join Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in response to ongoing economic stagnation. COVID-19 has, if anything, accelerated this Sinification of the Italian economy, given the ham-handed response of Brussels to the countrys plight (and which is still governed by old prevailing austerity biases). Although the tangible economic benefits of the BRI have likely been overstated, Rome-based journalist Eric Reguly has written:

The Italian government rolled out the welcome mat to Chinese President Xi Jinping in part because it is desperate for foreign investment. Italy suffers from crushing youth unemployment and never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. It felt it was more or less abandoned by the U.S. and the rest of the EU on the investment front. The anti-EU sentiment among Italians rose during the migrant crisis, when other countries of the bloc refused to relieve Italys migrant burden, and rose again earlier this year, when Brussels ignored Italys initial pleas for help to fight COVID-19.

It is important to note that Huawei is but a symptom of a broader EU disengagement from the U.S. Even if Huaweis role in Europes future 5G networks is minimized, the big winners will be European companies, Nokia and Ericsson, not American ones. The 5G deficiency is but one illustration of how Americas failure to prioritize a robust manufacturing sector has contributed to a loss of influence and leverage in Europe.

That in turn explains the relatively tepid response to American pressure in many European capitals. Many EU member states have made the calculation that their interests are no longer inextricably tied to those of the U.S. One also sees this in response to American threats over new Russian natural gas pipelines, which the EU is largely ignoring. Europe has outgrown the suffocating embrace of Cold War exigencies.

The one outlier might well be the United Kingdom in its post-Brexit incarnation. Via the Five Eyes intelligence coordination among the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it is possible that there will be a further tightening of the Anglosphere countries. Their current convergence on Huawei is one illustration of this, although Huaweis Chief Digital Officer, Michael MacDonald, concedes that the battle over 5G dominance is small fry compared to the total Digital Economy, which is generally accepted to contribute as much as 25% of the worlds gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025-26, [and] will be worth approximately $20 trillion, with 5G contributing just 0.2%. And here the U.S. has everything to play for, given its ongoing dominance through American Big Tech behemoths such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.

As far as the U.S. itself goes, that also means a narrow but deep North America strategy (United States/Mexico/Canada), especially given the American governments increasing proclivity to view economic warfare through the prism of national security considerations (as it did during the original Cold War). Those national security calculations have changed somewhat: In a reversal of old Cold War norms, whereby the strategic importance of Japan via Americas offshore naval presence was paramount, Mexico is now being prioritized, at least in regard to manufacturing and investment flows via the new North American trade agreement.

As U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer writes in Foreign Affairs, the newly reconfigured United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement reinforces this trend by overhaul[ing] the rules of origin that govern trade in the [automobile] sector, increasing the threshold from 62.5 percent under the old NAFTA to 75 percent under the new USMCA.

These concerns are becoming bipartisan, as both parties are now tacking increasingly toward an overt form of economic nationalism.

Multipolarity need not usher in a Hobbesian-style world of eternal conflict. But as it becomes more of a reality, it signals the increasing eclipse of America as a preeminent superpower of one. Asias rise in particular simply returns the distribution of economic activity to what it was before the first industrial revolution. Thats not a bad thing, except for those rooted toward an embrace of American hegemony that must be retained at all costs, peacefully or by war.

If anything, one could argue that Americas status as the worlds sole global superpower ushered in considerably greater global instability, given the absence of any restraining counterweight, as Washington went from one unilateral war of choice to another. A Joe Biden victory in November may temporarily arrest these trends, but the die has been cast. [IDN-InDepthNews 31 July 2020].

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IDN is flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate.

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