International Response and Effects of the Events on January 6th, 2021
By Allyssa Lessinger
Just six days into the new year, catastrophe hit, after an aggressive group of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Many were enraged by the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, after current President Donald Trump’s loss. The large mob breached multiple police perimeters and broke into the Capitol building, vandalizing, stealing, and destroying areas of it. This riot has further tarnished the image of the United States of America to the rest of the world.
Many world leaders responded to this storming with varying amounts of horror. Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, called the day’s events “terribly distressing, they’re very concerning,” going on to give his best regards to America and wish for a peaceful transition. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted out that Canadians were “deeply disturbed by the attack on democracy.” However, countries like the People’s Republic of China weren’t so kind about their views on the events of January 6th, with the Chinese Embassy telling Chinese nationals in the US to “exercise caution before going to public places” and the state-backed newspaper The Global Times criticizing the reactions of U.S. politicians to the mob, saying “instead of condemning the violence, U.S. politicians hailed the ‘courage’ of these mobs.” In Europe, the President of France Emmanuel Macron said, “What happened today in Washington DC is not America, definitely,” with the foreign minister of France, Jean-Yves Le Drian, calling the violence “an attack against democracy.” Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered a powerful statement, voicing his feelings by saying, “Last year, President Trump extended painful economic sanctions placed on Zimbabwe, citing concerns about Zimbabwe’s democracy. Yesterday’s events showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy. These sanctions must end.” Even more concerning, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Relations, a major government agency of a country previously heavily criticized by the United States of America for the corruption within their government, their violation of human rights, and their political and economic crises, denounced the riot, saying that the events “reflect the deep crisis that the United States political and social system is currently undergoing.” They added on to this by declaring that “the United States is experiencing what it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression.”
The events of January 6th may influence the future of American foreign policy, but seeing as the USA is an international superpower, this may not change much. Since those that harshly criticized the United States were countries who already didn’t have the best relations with the US, the United States will mostly continue to control the political climate of the globe. However, some more minor issues may arise as an effect of the loss of trust in the United States to maintain the democracy it was once lauded for. The once grand allure of the great America will begin to decrease substantially to those who once thought of the United States as a “promise land,” especially after people around the globe witnessed the violence and insurrection inspired by its own president. An increased wariness of American policy and interference on democracy in other countries and the looming fear that something similar to this may occur again are all factors that could lower the United States of America’s reputation to the rest of the world.