> btw - why were you surprised? Or what were your
> expectation?
I think it's politically shortsighted to view the United States as the alpha and omega of everything in the world. Certainly it's the most powerful military power and one of the largest economic powers, and the dollar is (still) the major global reserve currency, but I think this will not last forever.
I don't know if this has been discussed on the list previously, but I fine Arrighi's article on "Hegemony Unravelling" to be quite convincing, and I wonder what other people here might have to say about it.
In any case, I think a direct confrontation between China and the USA or a united Europe and the USA is not likely in the near or medium future, but I think a slow erosion of American hegemony is inevitable (though I think perhaps Robert Kurz's description of the USA as the "ideal total imperialist" for all of capitalism will continue to hold true).
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