American Power and Pain

In his 1987 surprise bestseller, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Paul Kennedy offered this forecast: “The tests before the United States as it heads toward the twenty-first century are certainly daunting, perhaps especially in the economic sphere; but the nation’s resources remain considerable, if they can be properly organized, and if there is a judicious recognition of both the limitations and the opportunities of American power.”1 Looking back on three-plus decades that have passed since Kennedy wrote those words, it is clear that neither of his “ifs” happened. Americans did not organize their considerable resources “properly,” as Kennedy suggested, nor did they learn the “limitations” and “opportunities” of American power. The last year has shown this. The pandemic has exacerbated and accelerated the forces that have undercut the foundations of American power over the last half century. The United States has amassed more wealth than...

China · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Great power · Political economy · Political science · Power (physics) · Sociology · Surprise · History · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

• Carteles de Estados Unidos de América y la Alemania nazi en 1942

  Open Access•Edgar Ortiz-Arellano•Revista Espiga•2022

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