Its not merely budgetary constraints that delay the so-called US pivot to Asia. The more apparent reason is still stuck in Europe and Middle East. Of course, budget woes and its economic woes are key in preventing the US--the much-vaunted victor of the Cold War--to go around in its usual manner. From uni-polarity to multi-polarity in two decades! Two short for beltway strategists to adjust and cast away obsolete paradigms. IMO, the US faces the hybrid realist-liberal dilemma. China and Russia are important partners it needs to work with yet the two are also the strongest challengers to its weakening hegemony. The question remains: can the US retain its hegemony? Will it do so by cajoling China and Russia to be junior partners of a stable world order and concede regional hegemon status to the two partners? Or are we seeing the more natural decline of a hegemon due to imperial overstretch, internal decay, and other factors?
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 23:11:25 +0000