What's the US Deep State and How Could De-Dollarization Weaken It?
14:03 GMT 20.12.2024 (Updated: 14:16 GMT 20.12.2024)
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The return of Donald Trump to the White House raises questions about the surprises the US deep state may have prepared for the incoming president. It also prompts speculation on whether his victory signifies a weakening of the deep state and if Washington's foreign strategy will change.
What is the US Deep State?
Coined in the 1990s, the term gained traction during President Donald Trump's first tenure, particularly during the fake "Russia collusion" scandal, which Trump attributed to a "deep state".
Sputnik has looked into different descriptions of the concept:
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan administration official, wrote on his website that the deep state is "entrenched and institutionalized" within the US government, possessing numerous ways to manipulate or obstruct the president's efforts.
Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel highlighted the role of deep state operatives within the FBI, DoJ, and other federal agencies in covering up activities by US political dynasties. He explained how whistleblowers are often ignored or silenced and how damning evidence disappears.
American Peace Movement activist Jan R. Weinberg described the deep state as being driven by powerful defense contractors, suggesting that the military-industrial complex wields more power than the president.
US Presidents Come and Go But Politics Remain Unchanged
The deep state also appears to ensure that US politics remain unchanged, as Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier noted, referring to the challenges in negotiating with the US leadership.
"I have already spoken to three American presidents," Putin told French journalists in May 2017. "They come and go, but politics remain the same. Do you know why? Because of the powerful bureaucracy. When a person is elected, he may have some ideas. Then people with briefcases come to visit him, well-dressed, in dark suits... These people explain to the president what to do."
"We're ready to talk. But with whom? What are the guarantees? There are none," the Russian president reiterated in a February 2024 interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson.
The Deep State is All About Money
Defining the mysterious entity known as the deep state, its composition, or its particular decision-makers is challenging. Political science has largely refrained from examining the US deep state phenomenon, but some scholars are beginning to explore the issue.
Lillie Ferriol Prat, a project/research assistant at the BRICS Research Institute of the Durban University of Technology, South Africa, defines the deep state as "essentially a philosophy where the few profit at the expense of the majority, expressed in various ways."
She traces its origins back to the establishment of the US Federal Reserve System, which was authorized to print money, while its co-founders, American and European financial dynasties, laid the groundwork for the future liberal globalism.
"In modern times, one of the key foundational structural components has been the establishment of the Fed and the resulting debt-driven monetary mechanics, which paved the way for dollar dominance and aggressive globalization - an ideal scenario for a few selected individuals," Ferriol Prat told Sputnik.
The post-WWII Bretton-Woods agreement established the dollar as the world's dominant reserve currency. This enabled the US to increasingly finance its debt, control the global financial clearing system, and impose sanctions on individuals and nations deemed "hostile" by the US elite.
Given that the dollar's dominance ensures the enrichment of the US elite, it appears that one of the deep state's roles has long been to preserve this hegemony.
This preservation seems to be achieved through a range of policies and clandestine actions, including sanctions, wars, regime changes, and sabotage, which expand the dollar zone and ensure nations' dependence on the greenback. As the dollar zone expands, the Federal Reserve continues "printing" new dollars, generating additional profit, economists argue.
13 April 2023, 18:35 GMT
Chickens Come Home to Roost
"However, greed leads to imbalance, and ever-increasing greed will inevitably result in systemic collapse over time. This tendency towards collapse is evident in the current US debt ceiling crisis," said Ferriol Prat.
Additionally, the weaponization of the US dollar and recent attempts to seize frozen Russian Central Bank assets are prompting some global players to seek alternatives to the greenback and the Western-centric clearing system controlled by the US.
The BRICS bloc is championing the idea of an alternative financial and settlement payment system, where national currencies and digital financial assets ensure free and fair trade between sovereign nations worldwide.
"Distancing from the dollar and increasing national currency use is already positively affecting the GDP growth of BRICS nations," Ferriol Prat highlighted.
"The paradigm shift led by BRICS (and now BRICS+) towards an inclusive and just multilateral system must be supported by alternative financial institutions and settlement instruments to structurally prevent a top-down approach and instead promote a structure where each country can decide what is most convenient for its people," she stressed.
Does the End of Dollar Dominance Mean the End of the Deep State?
US think tanks, media, academia, and politicians have raised alarms about the waning dollar dominance, but the decentralization process appears irreversible.
Meanwhile, Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin has recently declared the end of liberalism and "the broader cycle of Western colonial dominance that began with the Age of Exploration." Apparently, the US deep state now faces a painful dilemma: to ramp up its destructive policies, adapt to new conditions or become a relic of the past.
