By TEE NGUGI

More by this Author

Every time there is an American election, the world holds its breath. Countries begin to calculate how the next occupant of the White House will affect them.

Since World War II, America has been the premier military and economic power. Western Europe, faced with the ‘Russian threat’, worried whether the incoming US administration would still commit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military framework.

South East Asia wanted America to continue counterbalancing the rise of China. The Arabs worried whether the next administration would tilt more or less towards Israel. On its part, Israel wanted the next administration to continue giving military, economic and diplomatic support. Some countries in Asia worried about a more aggressive American stance.

In Africa, we hoped the next administration would increase aid and trade.

This period of American global influence has been referred to as Pax Americana. Like Pax-Britannica in the 18th and 19th centuries, American power — for better or worse — guaranteed an Anglo-saxon and capitalist-dominated security, cultural and economic world order.

However, in the face of today’s changing geo-political reality, the world’s obsession with the outcome of an American presidential election is beginning to resemble a child’s separation anxiety — a state of continued emotional attachment to the mother even when the child can now function without her. We have been so used to American influence that we are unable to recognise changing geopolitical reality. Like Pavlov’s dogs, we keep salivating even in the absence of food.

The reality is China has overtaken America as the provider of aid and loans around the world and is beginning to challenge American military hegemony in places like South East China. It would now make more sense for countries in that region to start cultivating strong ties with China and putting more emphasis on regional blocks as guarantor of their security. While American support is still crucial for Israel, the Jewish state - perhaps more perceptively than most — has been reaching out to a resurgent Russia and ratcheting up diplomatic ties with Arabs as a way of guaranteeing its future security.

The Europeans should have realised that they have no independent diplomatic policy when Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and they found they could not keep their end of the bargain. In Africa, what Beijing thinks is now more concerning than the policies of the man in the White House.

American cultural influence is also on the wane. People now crave for movies other than those from Hollywood. Music fans are slowly turning away from the hedonism and violence in American Hip Hop to more experimental and uplifting genres. American food brands have to reckon with a world that is more health conscious and more aware of the environment. Pax Americana is on the way out.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator