October 15 — Provocate presents: The Fall of the American Empire, an Empire without End
Four perspectives on American global power: (1) America is rapidly declining to irrelevancy (thank goodness); (2) America is facing the rise of new wannabe empires, so has to accommodate them in cooperative institutions; (3) reports of America’s decline have been rampant since before the US rose, and are still premature (thank goodness); (4) like it or not, for good or for ill the US will be Top Dog for a long time, but that shouldn’t distract us from figuring out how we here can help solve global problems. Guess which is Provocate’s preferred position?
When: 3:00 PM, Wednesday October 15
Where: Butler University, Pharmacy Building room 204
Prof. Mason has a brand new book called The End of the American Century that dissects in great detail the causes of the current (and he believes continuing) decline of American power in the world. You can read more about the book and how it anticipated events of the past few weeks at the book’s website. Dave will have copies of his book for (I am sure) discounted sales and autograph.
Michael Kraig is Director of Policy Analysis and Dialogue at the Stanley Foundation. He’s leading a major project called “Rusing Powers: New Global realities.” The Stanley Foundation is a little-known but very influential think tank located in Iowa that often provides support for the United Nations on big conceptual issues. Michael is in Indianapolis courtesy of the Indiana Council on World Affairs.
Dave and Michael are approaching current questions from different directions. Dave focuses on economic, military, political and cultural sources of American weakness and decline. Many read his book as pessimistic since there doesn’t seem to be many suggestions about how the US can arrest or reverse its downward trends. Michael Kraig’s project looks less at the US than at the other rising powers in the world: China, India, Brazil, Russia; plus current powers that are redefining themselves such as the European Union and Japan. His focus is how the US can use its current power to create regional or global institutitons that will accommodate the rising powers and help solve common problems such as climate change and religious extremism.
I’ll probably chime in on the discussion … I’ve been not-writing a book on the American Empire for a few years. It seems clear that the US will be the dominant power in the world for a long time, that no major global problems are likely to be solved without American leadership, and that the US government can use its power in good or in bad ways. But what interests me most is what this means for us here, in Central Indiana.
If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out …
Michael Kraig will talk about the “Rising Powers” project to the Indiana Council on World Affairs the evening of October 15.
Know before you go:
For a contrary perspective, see Alan Dowd’s piece on “Declinism.”
Order Dave’s book
See Dave’s bio here:
Michael Kraig’s bio is here
His cool project on “Rising Powers” is here
And for your listening pleasure …
