The Decline Of The American Empire

It used to be that when America sneezed, the world caught a cold. A pebble thrown into the American pond sent ripples around the globe, a recession in the US, or even the threat of recession, was enough to send world markets tumbling. That is no longer the case. Even as Wall Street stumbles, battered by the one-two punch of the credit crunch and global commodities inflation (oil, food), stock markets in China and India are booming. The Dollar’s decline against the worlds coinage continues unabated as the Euro prepares to take over as the de facto universal currency. The “decoupling” of the world’s economy from America is almost complete.

Some trivial, yet telling factoids from Fareed Zakaria’s book The Post American World: The world’s tallest building is in Taipei, soon to be taken over by Dubai. The world’s largest publicly traded company is in Beijing, the largest investment fund in Abu Dhabi. The biggest refinery is in India, the largest passenger plane is built in Europe. Even those things considered quintessentially American have been surpassed. The largest Ferris Wheel – Singapore. The largest casino – Macao. Only two of the top ten richest people in the world are in the US. Arbitrary examples to be sure, but ten years ago, America would have been the top of any list.

Quite apart from its financial demotion from leader of the pack, and perhaps more distressing to the American public, is the decline in US influence in foreign policy. America was poised, at the end of the last century, to usher in the second age of Pax Americana as the only surviving superpower. Yet today George Bush has to bear the humiliation of having to go cap in hand to the Saudis to boost oil production, and worse still, to be turned away like a beggar at the door. The Saudis have other energy hungry clients who will buy their oil at whatever the cost, notably, the BRIC nations- Brazil, Russia, India and China, and the Saudis no longer have to kowtow to America. Whereas Bush the elder was able to put together an alliance of States, including Arab nations, to prosecute the first Gulf War, Bush junior had to rely on a “Coalition of the Willing” which included such powers as Palau, the Marshall Islands and Tonga and several client states which did not even have armies.

At the time of its greatest vulnerability, America is led by perhaps the worst president in its history, a president who believes it is his manifest destiny to bring democracy to the yearning masses of the planet, at the barrel of a gun if necessary. A Republican who campaigned against big government, then redefined what big government could be. Here’s an interesting factoid, courtesy of Doonesbury – Since 1776, the US has accumulated a debt of $9 trillion – over half of which was incurred while a Bush was president. If you include the Reagan years, fully 70% of the national debt was created under three Republican presidents. Quite a legacy.

In a world driven by science, technology and information, American religious conservatives, who have had an increasingly disproportionate influence on politics, especially on Republican platforms, would have us go back in time, a nation of neo-luddites. We are surely the only industrialized nation who takes Intelligent Design seriously. A recent USA Today poll found that a majority of Americans believed in Creationism and that the world was created in the last 10,000 years.

Like a dinosaur, whom the majority of Americans apparently believe coexisted with man, America’s time as the preeminent nation in the world has passed, and it remains to be seen whether new leadership can rescue the country from the tarpit of history, so that it can rejoin the world as an equal, perhaps even the first among equals, instead of as a cautionary tale of hubris and overreaching. As for the present president, it is fitting that he presides over an America which is slowly, yet surely becoming bush league.