A countries road to disaster ...
Is paved with inflexibility ...
In a previous post Road to Failure, I had written about how formerly rich families, when confronted with relative poverty, dig their own graves by refusing to modify their behaviour to suit their changed circumstances.
Extending this, would this not be true of countries as well ? The US, currently the undisputed super-power of the world, currently plays the role of an "arrogant rich family" in the world family.
And of course, every rich family will pass into relative obscurity at some point. And so will superpowers - The US cannot expect to retain its position of pre-eminence forever. Spain, France, Portugal, UK, Russia, India, Iran/Iraq, Italy and Germany have all had phases of super-powerdom.
Being a super-power in these modern times comes with some agreeable advantages - The ability to wage war with any country of one's choice, the ability to use the World Bank as a tool to puppetize Third World countries, the ability to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and the ability to use foreign lives as fuel for their own economic growth (Either in nationalistic expansion, technology guinea pigs or psychological chess).
This behaviour is sustainable as long as the country retains its position as a super-power, as the accompanying economic and miliary might disallow any significant opposition. However, when the US starts slipping from this position, I will wager that the country will continue to display the exact same behaviour that it displays today and consequently shoot itself in the foot and make any process to climb back to the top that much more difficult and painful.
In a previous post Road to Failure, I had written about how formerly rich families, when confronted with relative poverty, dig their own graves by refusing to modify their behaviour to suit their changed circumstances.
Extending this, would this not be true of countries as well ? The US, currently the undisputed super-power of the world, currently plays the role of an "arrogant rich family" in the world family.
And of course, every rich family will pass into relative obscurity at some point. And so will superpowers - The US cannot expect to retain its position of pre-eminence forever. Spain, France, Portugal, UK, Russia, India, Iran/Iraq, Italy and Germany have all had phases of super-powerdom.
Being a super-power in these modern times comes with some agreeable advantages - The ability to wage war with any country of one's choice, the ability to use the World Bank as a tool to puppetize Third World countries, the ability to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and the ability to use foreign lives as fuel for their own economic growth (Either in nationalistic expansion, technology guinea pigs or psychological chess).
This behaviour is sustainable as long as the country retains its position as a super-power, as the accompanying economic and miliary might disallow any significant opposition. However, when the US starts slipping from this position, I will wager that the country will continue to display the exact same behaviour that it displays today and consequently shoot itself in the foot and make any process to climb back to the top that much more difficult and painful.
Comments
The foreign policy of this country has gone through a major alteration after World War 2. FDR and few of the people during that period decided that being warm to neighbors is not going to help them in the long run or help them stand against the might soviets. So what they did. They used their clout (Bling Bling stuff) and broke the Russian union, and if you look today most of the former Russian colonies are more biased towards the west and especially the US.
I agree with U, having the military power that none of the other nations could match and the money power US would go not only 1 step but also floor after floor to show its power.
It can only be tamed if countries on the east start grouping together which wont happen until Japan, China and India are dependent on US market. All this countries already have the local market but the only thing that is missing is the local brand. promote local manufactured products. Promote small business industries instead of large firm. Give money to the middle class, they r the biggest shoppers.
Yes, very true. In the recent past officials in US did'nt realise that, "Yanaikku oru kaalam vanthal poonaikum varum". The irony is no other countries are taking effective part in this issue. I have posted a blog on an related subject to this few months ago, if you find time do visit:
http://princessofgold.blogspot.com/2005/10/greatest-glory-in-living-is-not-in.html
BYW Am not for Politics.. :) But I had a passion for law,fortunately or unfortunately ended up in Engineering..
Have a nice day,
Ponnarasi Kothandaraman.
Upto 20% of the US liabilities is held by these two countries. Currently, in order to make repayments, the US is printing dollars and using them - But if US and Japan demand payment in any other currency (e.g Euros), there could be a critical payments crisis !!
Its a Catch 22 now, but in a few years, China might be able to dictate the terms of the relationship.
Sorry! I thot ur name was Dinesh and mistyped.. :-/ Er..... Sorry.
Have a nice day,
Ponnarasi.