New on OnlySky: The passing of the American era


I have a new column this week on OnlySky. It’s about America and how we had a long run as the world’s reigning superpower, but now that era is coming to an end.

Every empire, no matter how powerful it was in its day, topples eventually. America’s fall may be a spectacular one, and it won’t happen because we were conquered by any external enemy. It will happen because we did it to ourselves: because a variously apathetic, ignorant, or racist electorate chose a president who’s unleashing chaos exactly as he promised, wrecking our democratic system in ways that will reverberate for decades.

It raises the question: When America has faded from the global stage, who will take our place? Is there any nation or coalition of nations waiting in the wings that has the ability and the desire to set the rules of a new, post-American world order? Or is the world’s future a multipolar free-for-all?

Read the excerpt below, then click through to see the full piece. This column is free to read, but paid members of OnlySky get some extra perks, like a subscriber-only newsletter:

Whatever happens in the next few years, the damage is done. America’s erstwhile allies will conclude, rightly, that we’re no longer a trustworthy partner. All our obligations and commitments are chaff that blows away on the wind, vulnerable to the whims of every election. On the intellectual front, America is lobotomizing itself: muzzling its scientists, threatening to prosecute doctors, cutting off funding for research and education. In a world of declining population, where countries that welcome immigrants are best-positioned to thrive, America is slamming that door shut. Xenophobic hostility is burning like a brushfire, and federal goon squads are being empowered to seize and deport as many people as possible, regardless of legal status.

The consequences won’t be felt overnight. The US is still an economic colossus, accounting for almost a quarter of global GDP. Sheer momentum will keep us coasting for some time, perhaps for another generation. However, the seeds of long-term decline have been sown.

Continue reading on OnlySky…

Comments

  1. says

    My guess is we see something like your third option, but with a world divided by spheres of influence.

    This division couldn’t come at a worse time. Especially with global warming worsening.

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