Leesvoer voor vanacht: Thomas P.M. Barnett over “Obama’s New Map of the World.”

For roughly the past quarter century, America has run the world using the following two levers: its massive consumption rate and its willingness to deploy military forces around the planet. Together these two drivers facilitated the rise of many new great powers by enabling their export-fueled growth and obviating any need for them to engage in distracting military buildups or overseas interventions.

That U.S. grand strategy has essentially run its course, having proven both amazingly successful (the death of great-power war in East Asia) and extremely exhausting (our crippling debt overhang).

Meneer Barnett behandelt de vier grootste uitdagingen van de nieuwe Amerikaanse regering: de economische crisis, het Afghaans-Pakistaans grensconflict, de aankomende presidentsverkiezingen in Iran en ten slotte de Oost-Europese rakettenkwestie. Klik hier om het volledige artikel te lezen.