Zakaria tackles the issue of superpowers in his article The Last Superpower. He quotes, "There will surely be some slippage of America's position over the next few decades. This is not a political statement but a mathematical one. As other countries grow faster, America's relative economic weight will fall. But the decline need not be large-scale, rapid, or consequential, as long as the United States can adapt to new challenges as well as it adapted to those it confronted over the last century." Zakaria is saying that the United States is not exactly in decline but the rest of the world power is rising. I think Zakaria's idea makes a lot of sense and is very realistic.
The title The Last Superpower, is referring to the United States as being the last superpower in the world today. This has been so since around 1989, when the fall of the Berlin wall and the fall of the USSR. But now, we also are starting to fall. According to Zakaria there will no longer be "superpowers" in the future and countries will be somewhat equal. He introduces he idea of multipolarity. Multipolarity, in other words, means that multiple places in the world that have power. This goes back to Thomas Friedman's essay in which he says the world is flattening and we are on a more level playing field. As other countries rise we are slightly declining. The whole world is competing with each other and America needs to stay in the game.
In my opinion I think America is conceited. We think we are all that in a bag of chips because we are supposedly this big bad superpower. We have become full of ourselves. We need to get on the train with the rest of the world and learn how to keep up. Everyone else is rising, so we should be rising too. Instead, we are worried about keeping isolated from the rest of the world. We don't approve of immigrants, learning new languages, and change. America needs to stop making all other countries enemies of them and collaborating with the rest of the world about globalization. I agree with Zakaria in his idea about the world with multipolarity. He makes a strong and interestin point about the rest of the world rising and America "slipping." America, everyone is gaining on you why isolate yourself now?
Amanda-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. Your use of quotations and images demonstrated your active engagement with and comprehension of the course readings. I tended to agree with your summations of the Is America Over? readings. I think that many Americans lack humility, and although it's a cliche, I think that we take our luxurious lives for granted.
I noticed a nice connection between Graff and Goldwasser when reading your blog. Graff argues that anything can be approached intellectually, which is precisely how Goldwasser approaches the Internet. Writing about those two authors would make for an interesting essay.
In your entry on Crackberries, you write, "The world has gone to crap. You are constantly hearing news stories of the increasing violence, kidnappings, homicides, and disasters. Do you want to be able to get a hold of your child in case they become a victim of the world's evil?" Has the world really gone to crap, OR does the media create this sense of doom and gloom by constantly reporting on negative events, this pumping the public full of fear? I leave that question open.
This blog is a 95% A. good show.