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| Robert Kagan: End of Dreams, Return of History - International rivalry and American leadership |
| 2007-12-07 |
| T he world has become normal again. The years immediately following the end of the Cold War offered a tantalizing glimpse at a new kind of international order, with nations growing together or disappearing altogether, ideological conflicts melting away, cultures intermingling through increasingly free commerce and communications. But that was a mirage, the hopeful anticipation of a liberal, democratic world that wanted to believe the end of the Cold War did not end just one strategic and ideological conflict but all strategic and ideological conflict. People and their leaders longed for "a world transformed." 1 Today the nations of the West still cling to that vision. Evidence to the contrary — the turn toward autocracy in Russia or the growing military ambitions of China — is either dismissed as a temporary aberration or denied entirely. The world has not been transformed, however. Nations remain as strong as ever, and so too the nationalist ambitions, the passions, and the competition among nations that have shaped history. The world is still "unipolar," with the United States remaining the only superpower. But international competition among great powers has returned, with the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, Iran, and others vying for regional predominance. Struggles for honor and status and influence in the world have once again become key features of the international scene. Ideologically, it is a time not of convergence but of divergence. The competition between liberalism and absolutism has reemerged, with the nations of the world increasingly lining up, as in the past, along ideological lines. Finally, there is the fault line between modernity and tradition, the violent struggle of Islamic fundamentalists against the modern powers and the secular cultures that, in their view, have penetrated and polluted their Islamic world. [..] Kagan is, almost always, worth going to the link and reading.... |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #3 I'm not sure I understand post #1. The USA has cultural influence, military power, and economic power far beyond any other nation. If that's not a superpower I don't know what is. We may or may not be a super-duper hyper power as postulated by French elites. There may be a dozen other Great powers all fighting for superpower status themselves. We might be confused and aimless but none of that lessons the USA's status. |
| Posted by: Helen Thomas 2007-12-07 17:14 |
| #2 Very weak article. |
| Posted by: Pholugum Stalin1270 2007-12-07 14:45 |
| #1 I think it is very weak. USA was a superpower after WW2, no now anymore since it is divided. |
| Posted by: Pholugum Stalin1270 2007-12-07 14:45 |