> The US's economic power, and its corresponding ability to maintain a
> hypertrophied military, could collapse within a decade.
It depends on what you mean by collapse. If you mean total economic meltdown, that's not going to happen, mostly because the US electorate had the sense to chuck out the neocons and install Obama in the White House. In response, China, Russia, Japan and the EU will continue to buy T-bills, so we're in for a period of slow, painful adjustment (the zombie US banks will continue to devour resources, but even they will eventually be cleaned up, just at a much higher price tag for the taxpayer).
In terms of culture, politics and legislation, though, US hegemony is over. Most of the planet is now literate, lives in cities, votes in democracies, owns a cellphone, and has access to mass media which is produced locally instead of by Hollywood ("You Americans want something from us? Get in line, my friend, get in line...).
Most of all, the planet has organized itself into regional federations and transnational bodies -- UNASUR, CSTO, SCO, the EU, the African Union, to name just a few. And I'll be the first one to admit I didn't see this coming. I thought the future would be run by East Asia and the EU -- a kind of taped rewind of US hegemony, as it were, only with different brand logos. I really didn't think the semi-peripheries would come back as strongly as they have. That said, I've never been happier to have been proved wrong.
-- DRR