I found this in the Washington Post (of all places).

The Global Realignment: The end of a US-centric world?
The media has recently caught on to the fact that US influence is in steep decline but still under the mainstream radar is the extent to which other players such as Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela are stepping into the vacuum. The US is still the military superpower but it's already sharing the global influence stage with emerging powers who can move global events as well or better.

A dramatic global realignment appears to be in progress (and quickening) as the result of several factors:

The loss of US influence as a result of the Iraq war
A view across the globe resulting from Abu Ghraib and range of missteps that the US has lost the moral high ground it had enjoyed for decades
A feeling among global leaders that the US is without a coherent foreign policy strategy...a belief that has started feeding on itself and has emboldened US adversaries
China's rise, its smooth diplomatic technique, its re-alignment with Russia and its aggressive, clever drive to form new alliances with nations extending from Asia and Africa to South America
Russia's recent rise combined with Russian President Putin's domestic popularity and his reputation for effectively standing up to the West
The rise of non-aligned nations emboldened by the inability of the US to effectively use the extraordinary power it possesses
A view among key global leaders that the US will be bogged down in Iraq for many years (a view heightened by significantly by President Bush's September 13 Iraq speech), thus distracted and unable to respond effectively to key political moves by the range of international players
A recognition by the international community that the Bush Administration not only hasn't been able to deal effectively with non-state actors (e.g. terror groups like Al Qaeda) but they are holding their own or starting to win


As a result of these and other factors, the world, from the top tier players to fringe nations to isolated political movements and ideologies, has recognized that a giant vacuum in global power has formed...and they've been moving to take advantage of it with no resistance from an essentially powerless US foreign policy establishment. Russia and China have beaten the US in forming critical energy alliances in Central Asia, in the Caucasus, in Africa and even in South America. At the recent APEC Summit, China was the 800 pound gorilla and President Bush was relegated to "also there" status. In 2007, the US now longer guides the world...at least two others (Russia and China) exercise power more effectively than the US. In 2008 and beyond that number may well expand and many think this may actually stabilize the world.

quote:

the US has lost the moral high ground it had enjoyed for decades

... or if that's what you want to believe.

Anyway, I notice a lot of America-centrism on this web site. A lot of arguments present situations that exist in the US as if they are representative for how things are in the world.

It would be a interesting to see what's outside.

quote:

Originally posted by Randal Graves:

quote:

the US has lost the moral high ground it had enjoyed for decades

... or if that's what you want to believe.

Anyway, I notice a lot of America-centrism on this web site. A lot of arguments present situations that exist in the US as if they are representative for how things are in the world.

It would be a interesting to see what's outside.

If you want a current world view, watch BBC and DW (German) produced news. You'll get a very, very different picture of global views than you will from U.S. media.

China is currently becoming deeply involved with oil investment and exploration in Africa while the U.S. is busy trying to steal the oil resources from the Middle East. This sort of thing isn't lost on the world stage.

Four years in Iraq is showing the U.S. to be a paper tiger. A muscle-bound giant that seemingly can't function without calling upon its nuclear aresenal.

Moral high ground? Where? The U.S. wouldn't even ratify the International Covenent on Political, Social and Cultural Rights without deleting all clauses pertaining to human rights as being applicable to the U.S.

Retired Monk
"Ideology is a disease"

Well what I found the most interesting about this article, is that it was in the Washington Post (which I find to be a rather right leaning paper).
It seems like there does seem to be a reported understanding of what is in store for the future of the US.