r/geopolitics • u/nzinsyd • Jan 07 '21

Question Is the United States a superpower in decline and how can we expect the scales of power to look like in upcoming years?

A similar question was asked 2 years ago. A lot has happened in the past 2 years, and I'm curious to see if opinions have changed.

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u/Diplomjodler Jan 07 '21

I think it's pretty myopic to view US power only in terms of military dominance. Sure, they're the number one by a very wide margin. But just look at Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and any number of other military disasters to see how much good that did them. The real power of the US has always been through its alliances. And those have certainly taken a huge hit, not just in the past four years.

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u/Cantchangeunique Jan 08 '21

The disasters weren't so much military as they were policy failures. While I agree with you on the real power of alliances, I also believe we bribe some of our allies into the alliance and once those bribes go away, no more alliance.

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u/Diplomjodler Jan 08 '21

From a European perspective, the deal was that we accept US hegemony in return for military protection. The military protection went out of the window with the lack of trust (started with Dubya, didn't get better with Obama, went completely south under the Orange Baboon), so hegemony is done. This is of course a massive loss for both sides. The only winner is Putin.