Tuesday, June 22, 2004
AMERICAN POWER -- AND ITS ABSENCE
Via Arts & Letters Daily, here's a sobering view of what a world without dominant, "unipolar" American global power might look like:
The prospect of an apolar world should frighten us a great deal more than it frightened the heirs of Charlemagne. If the U.S. is to retreat from the role of global hegemon--its fragile self-belief dented by minor reversals--its critics must not pretend that they are ushering in a new era of multipolar harmony. The alternative to unpolarity may not be multipolarity at all. It may be a global vacuum of power. Be careful what you wish for.
Those who decry the exercise of American power in the world must answer the questions, "If not us, who?" and "If not thus, how?" The answers I hear from the America-haters don't convince me.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 8:10 PM
