setting sun

told you so

Pretty sure I predicted this as a teenager (I wasn't the only one). I still haven't gotten around to learning Chinese though. Or Hindi.

The key stopping measure is the importance of breaking the Cold War mentality that has seemed to dominate American policy since...the Cold War ended almost two decades ago. The resuming of multi-lateral thinking which both requires and includes other nations in the decision making process, while preserving our interests, is the way to go to preserve our prestige in this post-world order (and seems to be what China has been doing for decades). Having grown up in the Cold War, most of the cold warriors stayed stuck there. Some people thought it meant the end of history, in a way. But unsurprisingly they simply continued as though that history hadn't happened at all.

That we have acted as the bully on the block rather than the cop on the block isn't all that surprising either. Sometimes a bully is a useful thing, as in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. But those were countries used to Russia's bullying and found ours usually more agreeable. Plus they were all prosperous in adopting capitalist reforms, in some cases more extreme than we do here (Czechs and Poland). Central Asia and Africa are different cases.