The mythical post-American era

Asia Times ^ | May 20, 2008 | Ehsan Ahrari

[forkinsocket]

In the context of civilizational history, the rise of the West is one of the oldest events. The old colonial powers declined; some of them slid into the category of "former great powers" (France, Germany and arguably Spain and Italy); and others, like Britain - realizing that it could never be a power of global influence again - found its niche as America's sidekick.

The European Union has emerged as a club that contains a number of former colonial powers and an entity that is attempting to act as a "great power". The former Soviet Union imploded, and Russia, as its chief successor, is still tying to find its identity, both as a great power and as a hybrid of democracy and authoritarianism.

That leaves the United States as the lone superpower. In that capacity, it remains a source of chief fascination and explanation for a number of strategic thinkers within the US and abroad. They envisage the rise of China and India as evidence of a power shift from the West to the East, or discern the emergence of a world in which the US is no longer a hegemon, thus, a world after America's "decline".

Such debates make the global community of strategic thinkers highly vibrant, intellectually fertile, ingenious and challenging. But, if their bottom line is that America is declining - which is either a subtle or a not-so-subtle message in a number of analyses - that is a highly questionable proposition, bordering on the portrayal of a mythical world.

[forkinsocket]

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[SolidWood]

Good analysis on the illusion of a “post-American world”, although the author takes a few jabs at the Iraq war.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Why hasn’t anyone taken Obama up on his invitation for a national dialogue on race? I’d like to have Obama answer a question on what he thought about the reparations for slavery issue. I’d like Obama to be grilled on affirmative action, racial quotas and the Civil Rights Initiatives.

[alecqss]

“I’d like Obama to be grilled on affirmative action, racial quotas and the Civil Rights Initiatives.”

Even grilled, I don't think I will like him.

[snoringbear]

If Obama becomes POTUS this guy will become a prophet...

[Maceman]

I’d like to have Obama answer a question on what he thought about the reparations for slavery issue.

I'd like to hear the question phrased this way: "Senator Obama, do you think that the Democrat Party should apologize for its documented role in opposing the abolition of slavery, implementing Jim Crow and segregation, birthing and supporting the KKK, and opposing the integration in the south right up through the time when the still-serving senior Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was filibustering against the Civil Rights act of 1964?

"Senator Obama, as a follow-up, since no existing institution in the the US is more directly implemented in profiting from slavery than the Democrat Party, don't you think that the party should show its repentance by paying reparations directly from Party coffers?"

[Maceman]

implemented=implicated. God I hate when that happens.

[Question_Assumptions]

Ping for later.

[jude24]

This author should read the essay about the "rise of the rest" by Faheed Zakaria in the current issue of Foreign Affairs. It is a much more nuanced view - essentially that America is not declining, but simply standing still when the EU, China and Russia are ascendent. This is a very different assertion then the one the author of this article debunks.