Will America Lose Its Superpower Status?:-
If the German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck is to be taken seriously, United States will soon lose its financial superpower status, as fallout of the global economic crisis.
"The world will not be the same as before the crisis ... One thing seems probable to me: The United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system. The global financial system will become multipolar," said Steinbrueck.
The term superpower was coined in the book The Superpowers: The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union - Their Responsibility for Peace (1944), written by William T.R. Fox, an American foreign policy professor. Superpower is defined by Prof Alice Lyman Miller of National Security Affairs as, "a country that has the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world, and sometimes, in more than one region of the globe at a time, and so may plausibly attain the status of global hegemony." This term was first applied in 1944 to include United States, the Soviet Union, and the British Empire as Superpowers. Of these British Empire was the most extensive empire in world history which held sway over 25% of the world's population and controlled about 25% of the Earth's total land area. However after World War II when the British Empire became independent, United States and Soviet Union were regarded as the only two superpowers. And after the Soviet Union split up America continued to be the sole superpower.
According to projections by Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, China will replace the United States as the world's largest economy by 2050, with India following closely behind in third place.
If this is to come true than America may no longer be the "only superpower," and the world's first truly globe-straddling empire.
Before we proceed further let's for a moment look at those things which make America powerful. Well, for one the United States possesses some of the biggest and deadliest weapons-- far larger pile of weapons than any other country. Secondly, no other country can match the size of the American economy. And thirdly the America information industry dominates the world--American movies and television programs are consumed globally.
Well by this logic, these may well turn out to be the reasons for its decline. For one American military has been stretched to the breaking point due to prolonged operations in Iraq. Its economy is in shambles. Its domestic debt, caused partly by the war expenditures, is reaching for the skies. The Rambo style foreign policy initiatives taken by the Bush administration particularly in Iraq, North Korea and Iran are a failures.
On the economic front too Bush administration's policies, which tried to cater to everyone from oil company executives to environmentalists, ended up benefiting no one. A seasoned US watcher succinctly summed it up as, "thanks to Bush: the US will never again occupy that extraordinary position of supremacy - military, moral or economic - that it held between demise of Communism and the 9/11 attacks".
Many economists however, feel that it would be in the best interest of the United States if the economies of countries like China, India, and Russia grow. According to projections by Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, there is a probability that the rise of India and China may reinforce American economic and military influence as U.S. corporations and investors could take advantage of cheap Chinese and Indian labor and continue to reap handsome profits.
This is precisely what is happening as a new Asia seems to be emerging. In this Asia-there is multiple and simultaneous activity going on with China rising up fast and that being the case with India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
In the final analysis the three Asian giants- China, India and Japan have the capacity to counter-balance each other. Any two of them are economically and militarily strong enough to prevent the third from dominating the region. India and Japan could balance China. China and Japan could balance India. And Japan's dreams of dominating the Pacific died in 1945. With the U.S. also prepared to defend the balance of power in Asia, it seems unlikely that China, or any other nation, will waste time and money in the effort to overturn it.
Meanwhile China will continue to modernize its military but it does not seem likely that it would attempt to overcome the combined might of the U.S., India and Japan now or ever in future.
Strictly speaking from the military point of view, the five big players in the world 2025 and beyond will be- the U.S., the European Union and the Asian Big Three. But again the U.S. may again be destined to play a pivotal role as the kingpin that could balance the Asian powers as well as the European ones. That's called twice lucky!! Isn't so Uncle Sam??
"The world will not be the same as before the crisis ... One thing seems probable to me: The United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system. The global financial system will become multipolar," said Steinbrueck.
The term superpower was coined in the book The Superpowers: The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union - Their Responsibility for Peace (1944), written by William T.R. Fox, an American foreign policy professor. Superpower is defined by Prof Alice Lyman Miller of National Security Affairs as, "a country that has the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world, and sometimes, in more than one region of the globe at a time, and so may plausibly attain the status of global hegemony." This term was first applied in 1944 to include United States, the Soviet Union, and the British Empire as Superpowers. Of these British Empire was the most extensive empire in world history which held sway over 25% of the world's population and controlled about 25% of the Earth's total land area. However after World War II when the British Empire became independent, United States and Soviet Union were regarded as the only two superpowers. And after the Soviet Union split up America continued to be the sole superpower.
According to projections by Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, China will replace the United States as the world's largest economy by 2050, with India following closely behind in third place.
If this is to come true than America may no longer be the "only superpower," and the world's first truly globe-straddling empire.
Before we proceed further let's for a moment look at those things which make America powerful. Well, for one the United States possesses some of the biggest and deadliest weapons-- far larger pile of weapons than any other country. Secondly, no other country can match the size of the American economy. And thirdly the America information industry dominates the world--American movies and television programs are consumed globally.
Well by this logic, these may well turn out to be the reasons for its decline. For one American military has been stretched to the breaking point due to prolonged operations in Iraq. Its economy is in shambles. Its domestic debt, caused partly by the war expenditures, is reaching for the skies. The Rambo style foreign policy initiatives taken by the Bush administration particularly in Iraq, North Korea and Iran are a failures.
On the economic front too Bush administration's policies, which tried to cater to everyone from oil company executives to environmentalists, ended up benefiting no one. A seasoned US watcher succinctly summed it up as, "thanks to Bush: the US will never again occupy that extraordinary position of supremacy - military, moral or economic - that it held between demise of Communism and the 9/11 attacks".
Many economists however, feel that it would be in the best interest of the United States if the economies of countries like China, India, and Russia grow. According to projections by Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, there is a probability that the rise of India and China may reinforce American economic and military influence as U.S. corporations and investors could take advantage of cheap Chinese and Indian labor and continue to reap handsome profits.
This is precisely what is happening as a new Asia seems to be emerging. In this Asia-there is multiple and simultaneous activity going on with China rising up fast and that being the case with India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
In the final analysis the three Asian giants- China, India and Japan have the capacity to counter-balance each other. Any two of them are economically and militarily strong enough to prevent the third from dominating the region. India and Japan could balance China. China and Japan could balance India. And Japan's dreams of dominating the Pacific died in 1945. With the U.S. also prepared to defend the balance of power in Asia, it seems unlikely that China, or any other nation, will waste time and money in the effort to overturn it.
Meanwhile China will continue to modernize its military but it does not seem likely that it would attempt to overcome the combined might of the U.S., India and Japan now or ever in future.
Strictly speaking from the military point of view, the five big players in the world 2025 and beyond will be- the U.S., the European Union and the Asian Big Three. But again the U.S. may again be destined to play a pivotal role as the kingpin that could balance the Asian powers as well as the European ones. That's called twice lucky!! Isn't so Uncle Sam??
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