Week 15 Post Class Blog

What is the Single Greatest Threat to US Power?

Professor Shirk made an excellent point at the end of our live session this week.  The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire is a multi-volume tome for good reason, there were numerous contributing factors and no single event or circumstance would have effectively ended the empire on its own.  With this consideration in mind, all of the topics discussed in our final live session have incredible potential to bring about the fall of American power: change in world order, inequality, climate change, and global pandemic. 

While I always root for the home team, I feel that Dan, Kyra, and Karan effectively argued for the most promising (or is it unpromising?) demise of US supremacy on the global stage.  A change in the liberal world order, from what has been developed since WWII, would certainly have devastating effects on America’s role.  What I found myself thinking is that each of the other arguments fit very nicely within this framework.  If America does not take a stronger stand for climate change advocacy, continues to let inequality define the nation, and remains unprepared for the next flu pandemic, there is a high possibility for the world order to collapse and rebuild.  Individually, these are all valid threats; when combined, they are almost guaranteed to end our current world order, thus disrupting the long era of American supremacy.

This is easily identifiable in the argument for a pandemic threat.  As mentioned in class, while America is nursing its sick and dying citizenry, and other nations are seeking to do the same, America is unable to assist other states.  This lack of ability will result in the world returning to a state of, at the least, semi-isolationism as they strive to remain healthy and strong.  America’s power is no longer relevant on the global scene because it is no longer able to extend that power to others.  This reversion to isolationism is one of the key factors that supports the argument for a changing world order.

A question of timelines made its way into each subject’s debate this evening.  Immediacy, as indicated by both the climate change and pandemic arguments, is a critical element influencing the importance of such events; this may make it a more immediate threat, but not necessarily a devastating threat to America’s power structure.  While inequality and a changing world order seem to happen at much slower paces, they can be aggravated or abated by other elements at work in the world.  However, these slower acting issues have the potential to be more destructive in the long run. 

And one final point for my pandemic group:  while I don’t like the idea of zombies (they really creep me out), knowing that the government has a plan on file to deal with zombie scenarios makes me feel both terrified and grateful at the same time.