Many declinists begin to measure the start of America’s fall from eminence from 1945, when it is typically assumed that U.S. power was unequalled in the world and could only diminish.
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” once wrote Mark Twain. “Greatly exaggerated” also described the repeated, periodic predictions of American decline. Indeed, [...]

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Today the two leaders, often partners but sometimes rivals, offer starkly different paths toward development, and it is Brazil’s milder and more pragmatic approach that appears ascendant. Amid the decline of American influence in the region, the Brazilian president is discreetly outflanking Chávez at almost every turn in the struggle for leadership in South America.
Chávez [...]

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Growing competition for oil may escalate to something as hot and dangerous as nuclear proliferation
The geopolitical implications of this gathering crisis for world oil supply 2010-15 are immense. The risk of further military interventions and conflicts in the Middle East is clearly high. Total world oil reserves are estimated at 2.5-2.9 trillion barrels, of which [...]

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The European Union may find dealing with the Middle Kingdom trickier than it expects
IN THIS Olympic summer, expect to hear a lot about the century of China’s rise and America’s decline. That sounds like good news for the European Union, and all who dream of a “multipolar” order in which European wealth counts as much [...]

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Despite some eerie parallels between the position of the United States today and that of the British Empire a century ago, there are key differences. Britain’s decline was driven by bad economics. The United States, in contrast, has the strength and dynamism to continue shaping the world — but only if it can overcome its [...]

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More than 80 percent of Americans now say that we are on the wrong track, but many if not most still believe that the history of other nations is irrelevant — that the United States is unique, chosen by God. So did all the previous world economic powers: Rome, Spain, the Netherlands (in the maritime [...]

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The number of deterrence patrols conducted by Russia’s 11 nuclear-powered ballistic missiles submarines (SSBNs) decreased to only three in 2007 from five in 2006, according to our latest Nuclear Notebook published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
In comparison, U.S. SSBNs conducted 54 patrols in 2007, more than three times as many as all the [...]

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At current trends the average age of people in the European Union will be 49 years by 2050. Combining this with a low birth-rate could mean serious long term implications. It could lead to lower tax receipts as fewer people are of working age and increasing health costs for an aging population. Encouraging immigration and [...]

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How America Can Survive the Rise of the Rest
Despite some eerie parallels between the position of the United States today and that of the British Empire a century ago, there are key differences. Britain’s decline was driven by bad economics. The United States, in contrast, has the strength and dynamism to continue shaping the world [...]

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In his articles Is Putin’s Russia fascist? published on the site of The National Interest Online on December 3, 2007 and Surviving Russia’s drift to fascism published in the Kyiv Post, January 17, 2008, Professor Alexander Motyl of Rutgers University seems to argue that Putin’s Russia can be classified as a fascist state.
Many observers of [...]

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This short answer is that it’s not going to happen. America is not going to war with Iran.
By George Friedman
A possible U.S. attack against Iran has been a hot topic in the news for many months now. In some quarters it has become an article of faith that the Bush administration intends to order such [...]

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Wars and weather have left few scars on Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. Commissioned by Napoleon to celebrate his victories, the 15-story tower of bone-white stone stands as an eternal monument to French glory, a time when Europe trembled before this nation’s might.
The national mood now, as France enters the final week before Sunday’s presidential election, [...]

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