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Asia once was regarded as the vanguard of a global wave of democratization that, over the past three decades, has swept through southern Europe, Latin America, and Africa as well. In recent years, however, Asia has witnessed a democracy backlash.
This chapter examines how world public opinion influences the United States' ability to exercise influence abroad militarily, economically, and politically. It concludes by discussing the difference between opposition to American foreign policy, on the one hand, and anti-Americanism, on the other hand, and exploring that difference's policy implications.
The success of "state capitalism" – a capitalist economy run with a high degree of state control – has made it a model for states across the developing world. Western powers may now be wondering whether their brand of capitalism will triumph after all.
Despite critics who claim that America’s power is fading fast, both presidential candidates know that the U.S. remains the key player on the international scene. Even in the throes of the financial crisis, America maintains unmatched economic and military power; and the challenges to U.S. power today are in fact no greater than challenges that the country has faced in past decades.
Stability in Afghanistan and the future of its government depend on the United States and its Afghan and other allies providing security for the Afghan people. Calls for an Iraq-style “troop surge” ignore the immediate need for a comprehensive political strategy to fix Afghanistan’s fragile security structure, dysfunctional system of government, and unstable borders.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates cautioned that the U.S. cannot maintain a credible nuclear deterrent without testing or modernizing its aging stockpile. Gates urged the next U.S. president to engage Russia in new arsenal reduction talks and pointed to the loss of top talent in U.S. weapons laboratories as a major source of concern.
The crisis in Georgia bluntly revealed the failure by the United States and Russia to create a closer working relationship after the Cold War. Agreements like the START and Concentional Armed Forces in Europe treaties could help establish a new book of rules both countries can embrace.
China's economy will remain strong despite the current global financial crisis, but its leaders should not assume that the crisis is a failure of capitalism, concluded Albert Keidel in a speech before the U.S.-China Business Council last week. Both the United States and China can learn from the crisis to improve their political and economic systems.
As world leaders prepare for next month’s international financial summit, critics remain skeptical about how quickly the IMF and the World Bank can actually adapt to the 21st century. Yet the mere fact that the upcoming summit will include leaders from the G20—rather than just the G7, as tradition would have it—suggests that the world is moving toward an unprecedented new financial order.
Nuclear disarmament is not an end in itself. Rather, it should be a means to global security. Some argue that nuclear deterrence provides the best form of security. But the fact that we worry so much about proliferation suggests awareness that deterrence in a complex multi-polar order is not fail-safe. The only long-term answer is to reduce the number of nuclear weapons to zero.
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