1 Boring Old Man

The Global Realignment: The end of a US-centric world?

• The media has recently caught on to the fact that US influence is in steep decline but still under the mainstream radar is the extent to which other players such as Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela are stepping into the vacuum. The US is still the military superpower but it’s already sharing the global influence stage with emerging powers who can move global events as well or better.

The media has recently caught on to the fact that US influence is in steep decline but still under the mainstream radar is the extent to which other players such as Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela are stepping into the vacuum. The US is still the military superpower but it’s already sharing the global influence stage with emerging powers who can move global events as well or better. A dramatic global realignment appears to be in progress (and quickening) as the result of several factors: The loss of US influence as a result of the Iraq war A view across the globe resulting from Abu Ghraib and range of missteps that the US has lost the moral high ground it had enjoyed for decades A feeling among global leaders that the US is without a coherent foreign policy strategy…a belief that has started feeding on itself and has emboldened US adversaries China’s rise, its smooth diplomatic technique, its re-alignment with Russia and its aggressive, clever drive to form new alliances with nations extending from Asia and Africa to South America Russia’s recent rise combined with Russian President Putin’s domestic popularity and his reputation for effectively standing up to the West The rise of non-aligned nations emboldened by the inability of the US to effectively use the extraordinary power it possesses A view among key global leaders that the US will be bogged down in Iraq for many years (a view heightened by significantly by President Bush’s September 13 Iraq speech), thus distracted and unable to respond effectively to key political moves by the range of international players A recognition by the international community that the Bush Administration not only hasn’t been able to deal effectively with non-state actors (e.g. terror groups like Al Qaeda) but they are holding their own or starting to win As a result of these and other factors, the world, from the top tier players to fringe nations to isolated political movements and ideologies, has recognized that a giant vacuum in global power has formed…and they’ve been moving to take advantage of it with no resistance from an essentially powerless US foreign policy establishment. Russia and China have beaten the US in forming critical energy alliances in Central Asia, in the Caucasus, in Africa and even in South America. At the recent APEC Summit, China was the 800 pound gorilla and President Bush was relegate to "also there" status. In 2007, the US now longer guides the world…at least two others (Russia and China) exercise power more effectively than the US. In 2008 and beyond that number may well expand and many think this may actually stabilize the world.

I think it is one of the amazing ironies of my life as a political person what’s happened here. Our Administration’s policies had their seeds in the post-Reagan Right Wing Think Tanks and societies – The Hoover Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, The Project for the New American Century, The Federalist Society, just to name a few. With the fall of the U.S.S.R., there was a vacuum and we were on top. We would simply jump in and become the world’s "sole superpower." To hell with the U.N. It was too slow and weak. We’d just take over. So, they got themselves elected [sort of] and took off in a flash, aided by Bin Laden’s attack on New York. In only four short years, they’ve created the situation described in this Washington Post report of projected Global Trends.