Those nations falling between the developed West and the world’s poorest countries are jockeying for position in their own regions and playing powers against each other. They will make life increasingly difficult for the reigning great powers.
Pax Americana and the age of Western dominance are fading. Washington can manage this decline, but first it must acknowledge its reality. History moves forward with a crushing force and does not wait for the unprepared.
The world we know is changing. The result is an uneasy mixture of the traditional Westphalian state system and the forces of globalization. Until we find a balance between them, this is a recipe for drift, transition and increasing chaos.
America still retains its innovative edge over China and India. But as long as Washington continues to handpick winners and losers, our preeminence is in jeopardy.
There is much room for debate on the soundness of neoconservative policies. But a serious assessment of neocons and their role in the Bush Administration is a necessary starting point.
Is the United States really as strong and wise, and "Old Europe" as weak and wooly-headed, as many American foreign policy pundits and practitioners think? Another way to read Transatlantic realities.
