ANALYSIS: The Decline of US Power?
Standing on the Washington Mall at the turn of the new millennium, it was impossible not to be struck by America’s power and global pre-eminence.
Victory in the Cold War made it the hegemon in a unipolar world.
Few argued when the 20th Century was dubbed the “American Century,” a term first coined in the early 1940s when the country was still overcoming its isolationist instincts.
Even the New Year’s fireworks, which illuminated the obelisk of the Washington Monument in a way that made it resemble a giant number one, projected the country’s supremacy as the world’s sole superpower.
Over the past 15 years, America’s fortunes have changed with dizzying speed.
First came the tremors: the dot-com bust and a disputed presidential election in 2000. Then came the massive convulsions: the destruction of the Twin Towers in 2001 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have exacted an enormous blood price — the lives of 6,852 American military personnel —Β not to mention immense financial expense, estimated to be as high as $6 trillion (Β£3.9tn).
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