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| Home Front: Politix |
| SMART POWER Exaggerating America's decline |
| 2008-06-18 |
| A new international relations orthodoxy is coalescing, to the effect that America is slouching towards mediocrity. In newspaper columns articles and on TV talk shows you will hear journalists charting the "relentless relative decline" of the United States. The military is overstretched; the economy is exposed; the political system is broken; the punters are suffering from an Iraq-induced hangover; and when it comes to international legitimacy, the White House has maxed out America's credit card. And all the time, potential competitors such as China, the European Union, Russia, India and Iran are closing in. The best works in this area, by Richard Haass and Fareed Zakaria, are full of insight. Yet as a non-American living in the United States, I'm struck by the gulf that still remains between America and the rest - in terms of hard power, soft power and what we could call "smart power." a good short read at the link |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #5 "It's worth noting that the declinist canon has emerged at the nadir of the Bush years" Actually, the "declinist canon" has waxed and waned for at least 35 years from my experience. Indeed, it was much worse in the 1930's when all the intellectuals of the world just knew that the Soviet Union was the way of the future and the capitalist USA was doomed. While I agree with much of what Fullilove says, his grasp of recent history seems a bit weak. |
| Posted by: Biff Wellington 2008-06-18 22:15 |
| #4 Compare wid TOPIX > AMERICA:STILL THE [World]COLOSSUS; + AMERICA: THE RELUCTANT HYPERPOWER. HMMMMM, lessirree, SUPERMAN > "I try to be careful becuase I don't want anyone or the innocent to get hurt ...Every now and then something happens where I get to show how powerful I truly am, and I'm glad"; versus THE INCREDIBLE HULK > "HULK MAD/SMASH....It taint easy being Green"??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-18 19:41 |
| #3 I always laugh when a doomsay article claiming that the economic sky is falling comes off with a line like The dollar reached it's lowest point since 2001. Ok, I think we'll survive, since we survived 2001. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-06-18 12:30 |
| #2 Most of them loudly proclaim the "decline" because, to them, it is their proudest achievement. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-06-18 09:05 |
| #1 Leftists, as usual, are letting their feelings dictate their coverage. They desperately want America to fall, and they are well aware that the press can sometimes make something happen just by agreeing that it's happening. It is hard to imagine future Fareed Zakarias - or, for that matter, future Barack Obamas - emigrating to China or Russia or Iran instead of the United States. Indeed. The classic liberal fallacy - they criticize the country while they would live nowhere else. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-06-18 03:01 |