We hear all the time about an end to American power. With two current wars, a host of under-funded domestic programs and a frozen economy, it's become a given that the United States will not dominate the world as we did in the post-Word War II era. Summarized by Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria in "The Post-American World," and repeated endlessly as revealed truth, the idea is that rising powers like China, India and the European Union, will force America to take a lesser role in world affairs.Bullshit. Total bullshit. In the 1980's people were saying the same things about that rising power Japan. Experts claimed Japan's economic power would let it dominate the new century. But that doesn't seem to be happening, does it?
The reasons aren't complicated. There are basically three kinds of international power; military, economic and cultural. Japan has loads economic power. But they have almost no military, and it is impossible to be a world power while relying on another nation for your defense.
Maybe more importantly, Japanese culture has no global sway. Yes, people around the world started buying Japanese cars in the 80's. But they didn't start clamoring to learn Japanese, to hear Japanese rock music, watch Japanese movies or to dress like Japanese teenagers.
China, America's most cited new rival, has economic power and a military. But the Chinese too, lack cultural sway. Very few people around the world are clamoring for Chinese-style government. Millions, maybe billions, cry for the free markets and free exchange of ideas they see in America. Consider that more than a million people emigrate from China every year, and most move to the United States. How many US citizens emigrate to China? Less.
Sure, China may be populous, but that doesn't automatically confer Great Power status. The British Empire beat China in the Opium Wars with about 12 guys who shared a musket. If a big population automatically made a county a superpower, Brazil would be world's the fifth most powerful nation on earth.
India is another often mentioned new rival to American power; probably by people who haven't seen "Slumdog Millionaire." India is wildly overpopulated and terribly poor. Moreover, India is a strong ally of the United States and it's people largely embrace democratic values. A rising India will only strengthen the United States, acting as a balance to Chinese power.
Who else, Russia? Please. Russia can barely get their own oil out of the ground. Unless Putin retakes Poland, Romania, the Ukraine and half of Germany, the USSR-era superpower days are long gone.
The European Union, which we still find kind of inherently funny, can challenge the US economically, but has laughable military power. Europe can't -- or won't -- even stand up to Russia.
This isn't to suggest that the United States should bully other countries, only that reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. For all the hysteria, there's no reason to expect the United States will not continue to dominate the globe far into the 21st century. As the call for democracy and human rights continues to spread, the world will have nowhere else to look.
