The article “The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective” by Joseph Nye speaks to the subject of power resources distribution. The author’s main findings are in establishing the connection between the United States’ economic decline in the global crisis of 2008, and the loss of its dominating positions in the world. Within the pages of the article, the audience will find a mind-blowing prognosis on the way the world positions of the United States may be shaken in the near future.
In the beginning of the article, Nye presents a thought-provoking review of word powers’ resources which made them so significant in the world. He mentions the examples of Spain, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. Analyzing them, he derives a formula which can be applied to the United States, and, thus, can be implemented in the prognosis on the future of this country as the world dominant power. This formula includes numerous parameters, and not only military and economic ones as it used to be in the past. Nowadays, the world is a very ambiguous place with numerous important players occupying their central positions in their dimensions. Among them are cyber-space owners who are able to attack a variety of state systems in the world including the most important ones of finances and safety and sectary; terrorists threatening peace in the world along with their entire countries as their military installation for preparing their attacks; financiers who are able to block the world economy manipulating with the world’s assets and concentrating them in certain places, and the other players who might not even be prominent at the world stage for now.
Highlighting the main points of the article under consideration, it should be stated that they are in showing that the world positions of the United States as the dominant power are seriously shaken after the crisis of 2008. The author’s prognosis shows that the United States will continue to be the world power in the near future; however, this position will be significantly weakened by the other emerging hegemonies in the world including China, Japan, Russia and some other players which are not even prominent in the current period of time. The author makes his main emphasis on the role of Asian region in the world. He mentions that Asia lost its global dominating positions for centuries, and the time came for it to change this situation. Asia is inhabited by more than a half of the planet’s population; it gains its powerful positions in the area of economical, technological and military development. All of these dramatic developments will soon lead to the decline of the United States power in the world.
In sum, the article “The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective” by Joseph Nye presents the prognosis concerning the future of the United States as the world power. The author strives to examine the factors that affect the position of the United States in the world. He also develops possible scenarios for the developments in the world’s arena. His main findings are in showing that the United States have already lost their positions in the world arena, and this process will only continue in the future. The role of Asian countries in this process will be the most significant among the other countries.
Works Cited
Nye, Joseph S. “The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective.” Foreign Affairs, vol. 89, no. 6, Council on Foreign Relations, 2010, pp. 2–12.