America will remain the worlds dominant superpower

I would like to repeat the point that the timeframe of this debate has been shortened from at least a full century to forty years. As such, many of my arguments have had to have been rewritten. I leave it to you to decide whether or not this has made it more difficult for me. However, I hope it shall nevertheless be clear to you that, in forty years time, the United States will no longer be the world's dominant superpower. The best of luck to Pro. All things in this world must, one day, end, whether they were good or bad. This is a fact. And, someday, the United States of America will cease to be the world’s leading superpower. I don’t think anybody could dispute that. Someday our star will grow to a supernova and, well, then there won’t be an America for the United States to be of. What I’m going to argue is that the U.S. will stop being the leading superpower in less than forty years, and that it won’t take a supernova to do so. As a side note, pay attention to this word “leading”. I’m not arguing that America won’t be a superpower of any kind – in fact, I suspect it probably will. But it certainly won’t be the leading superpower. First: America’s Position is Decaying A superpower can’t go it alone – unless, that is, it was imperial China or the Roman Empire. The U.S. is neither of those things, and it needs its allies in Europe and the Pacific (though some certainly more than others). Take, for example, Japan. Japan is the U.S. number 1 military and economic buffer against China. With Japan, the U.S. can project naval and economic force deep into the heart of East Asia. With Japan, the U.S. can shut down the possibility of Chinese expansionism to the East. But the way a superpower attracts allies is through shared values. In the Cold War, this was obvious – the U.S. stood for capitalism, personal freedom and religion, whilst the reds in the U.S.S.R. stood for communism and gulags and spit-roasting babies. Nowadays? Things are muddier. The U.S. just doesn’t share the same values as its allies. Take a look at these statistics [1] comparing American and West European values. I find the statistics on religion and personal freedom to be particularly fascinating. Western Europeans place much, much less emphasis on religion and personal freedom – half as religious and half as liberty-loving, if the statistics are anything to go by. Furthermore, take a look at this image [2] which I shamelessly lifted from Wikipedia. It shows the general trend of where countries have a national health service of some form, which America has been famously resistant too (just look at the controversy surrounding Obamacare). American allies which have turned turncoat and have some form of national health service include: The United Kingdom Japan France Canada Germany Spain Argentina Australia New Zealand The Netherlands Sweden Italy Greece Finland And South Korea. But never fear! The U.S. still has such steadfast ideological brothers to rely on such as: Mexico Peru Haiti Morocco Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Azerbaijan Iran And, of course, China. So, what common ground do the U.S. and its allies have now? I mean, they’re all capitalist. Though not the same brand of capitalist. And so is the other guy (sort of) – China. So, what’s to stop American allies deciding to hop over to the other side of the fence? Oh, right. Of course. Unlike China, the U.S. is a peace-loving nation with no militaristic intentions. Right? At a quick count [3], the U.S. has been involved in 27 separate wars and military operations these past 20 years. China has been involved in none. Zero. What have they been doing during that time? They’ve been building up their navy. [4] They’ve been building up their economy. [5] They’ve been educating their people. [6] A lot. [7] This was my opening statement and first argument for the decay of America’s position as the world’s leading superpower. In summary: America and its allies are drifting apart rapidly. I now pass back over to Pro for his round of rebuttals and arguments. Have I the time and space later, I hope to detail some of my other arguments, including: Why China isn't the only one America should be afraid of. Why America's stagnation is inevitable. And a broader perspective on global power politics. The best of luck to Pro. Sources: [1] http://www.pewglobal.org... [2] http://upload.wikimedia.org... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] http://www.fas.org... [5] http://pubs.aeaweb.org... [6] http://www.bbc.co.uk... [7] http://www.indexmundi.com...