The plateau of American power

Among global big thinkers, the notion of a US in decline has become conventional wisdom. In late 2011, this narrative has crescendoed, with experts arguing China has surpassed the US economically, Niall Ferguson declaring we are at “the end of 500 years of Western predominance” and The National Interest proclaiming “the end of the American era.” The US’s exit from Iraq and challenges in Afghanistan along with American vulnerability to the European crisis provide confirmation of the narrative. The US has neither the willingness nor the capability to provide the kind of global leadership it has provided in the past, and other countries are increasingly less willing to follow America’s lead.

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