The rise and decline of great powers

[broken robot]

[foadi]

I eisagree

[broken robot]

That actually made me laugh. Thanks foadi.

[gla22]

It is clear the U.S. is declining in power, but a decline of power dosen't necessarily mean that renders your country powerless. Russia is considerably less powerful than it was when it was the U.S.S.R but it remains a global power.

The U.S. still remains the center of innovation, new technology and business evolution in the world, for that reason we are doing well. Currently the federal U.S. government is struggling in many areas. The fact that the U.S. spends more per capita than any country oh healthcare yet can't cover everyone is telling. The U.S. will have to deal with its large structural economic problems in the near future. QE forever is not a real solution.

[Stratego]

It's not that the US is in decline, but rather that the Internet was such a powerful equalizing force that many nations were able to catch up relatively quickly. They're also able to compete on the information stage.

[PoS]

That paper was written in 2009, a lot has happened in China since then. I was in Hong Kong and Macao a few weeks ago and I noticed that a lot of the tourists that were visiting were from mainland China so it seems that the local market for Chinese goods and services is growing to the point that if it keeps up they wont have to be so reliant on exports to the US or Europe that much anymore- they can transition themselves into a service type economy like the West if they can handle it properly. A lot of the cheap unskilled labor market is already leaving China, in fact.

[exploited]

I don't think the US is declining in power. The US controls almost all global institutions, and what it can't control tends to be fairly unimportant anyways. Still has the best military in human history. Still the biggest economy by a long shot. And, most importantly, there is no power that will be able to counter American hegemony in a real way, not in the next fifty years anyways.

China is getting more powerful, yes, and a China-India-Russia power bloc would be quite formidable... but would be swept away easily were it to start flexing it's muscles. It simply could not win any form of hostilities with the US... not a trade war, not an actual war, and certainly not an ideological war.

So, yeah, in terms of global power dynamics, I'd say the US is as powerful as ever. You guys had a housing bubble and it collapsed the global economy - that sort of influence simply does not disappear easily.

[The Comrade]

that, and india is our hindu BFF

[exploited]

True that.

On another note, it never ceases to amaze me that India even exists as a nation.

Were it to get unruly, it would be just too easy to exploit it's internal divisions.

[Stratego]

The rise and fall of political powers can be compared to rise and fall of companies. Initially they rise because of the value they delivered and a common vision. However as they approach the top, the vision of where to go next diverges. This is when internal political struggles intensifies and the only common things that bring the parties together are things that worked in the past. As a result they tend to resort to backwards thinking, because backwards thinking is less painful. But in doing so they get left behind or at least allow others to close the gap.