Our friend George Koo published this article in Asia Times today. The premise of his opinion is that the first sputnik moment in 1957 spurred the US on to technological greatness. Now, with China’s rise, the accompanying technical challenges have only elicited confrontation, stagnation and indolence.
The first Sputnik moment took place on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union surprised Washington by sending aloft the world’s first man-made satellite “Sputnik 1”. When China successfully tested a hypersonic weapon system in October 2021, General Mark A Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this was very close to a “Sputnik moment.”
The United States under president Dwight Eisenhower responded promptly to the “Sputnik 1” challenge. The US congress followed Eisenhower’s example by passing the National Defense Education Act to boost the American education system and raise the quality and quantity of university graduates in the STEM disciplines. By reacting positively, the US has boosted our technical competency, ultimately winning the cold war and prompted the dissolution of the USSR.
With the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama boldly declared in his book The End of History and the Last Man that asserts that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free-market capitalism of the West (and its lifestyle) may have led to the end point of human social evolution and the ultimate form of human government.
In 1992 Under Secretary of Defence Policy Paul Wolfowitz drafted what is now known as the Woldowitz Doctrine which has been the guidance for the Defense Planning of the US ever since. The objectives of the US post-Cold War strategy is to prevent the emergence of a rival superpower; safeguard US interests and values; and, if necessary, take unilateral actions against all outside threats.
George Koo opines that “America had risen to the challenges of Sputnik 1, and it was easy to be a proud American.” However, the present US strategy in response to the new Sputnik challenge “isn’t what is used to be.”
Read all about George Koo’s Asian Times article here!