The uninevitable decline of American power

Hot Air linked to an LA Time oped entitled “Twilight of Pax Americana,” wherein the authors tell us that the United States’ economic, political, and military influence is waning:

The international order that emerged after World War II has rightly been termed the Pax Americana; it’s a Washington-led arrangement that has maintained political stability and promoted an open global economic system. Today, however, the Pax Americana is withering, thanks to what the National Intelligence Council in a recent report described as a “global shift in relative wealth and economic power without precedent in modern history” — a shift that has accelerated enormously as a result of the economic crisis of 2007-2009.

They rightly point out that this is not necessarily a good thing, even for people who aren’t fans of the United States:

The result will be profound changes in world politics. Emerging powers will seek to establish spheres of influence, control lines of communication, engage in arms races and compete for control over key natural resources.
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Although the weakening of the Pax Americana will not cause international trade and capital flows to come to a grinding halt, in coming years we can expect states to adopt openly competitive economic policies as they are forced to jockey for power and advantage in an increasingly competitive security and economic environment.
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The coming era of de-globalization will be defined by rising nationalism and mercantilism, geopolitical instability and great power competition. In other words, having enjoyed a long holiday from history under the Pax Americana, international politics will be headed back to the future.

I don’t find much to disagree with in this article, except for the tone of: “Wow, how did that happen? Guess it’s just the way things worked out!”

As chronicled by many Asian observers and even at this tiny little blog, this situation is a slightly accelerated version of China/SCO’s plan to challenge and eventually supplant the United States’ role as sole superpower. They started on this path back in 2001, and have been gaining momentum every year since.

We’ve had many occasions to turn this situation around, and there’s still time to catch ourselves before the end.But our current policies are accelerating our demise so quickly as to seem deliberate. What was a 7-year eventuality now has a 2-year horizon. And that’s only if we don’t pass all that pending self-destructive legislation.