Posted by Bob Janova at 2:34pm Mar 10 '13
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America is the no 1 nation in military and economic power. Yes, that is objective fact, although if you take the EU as a whole as a competitor (which as I said before I think is fair in the economic realm), it is not by as much as you think. However, 'superpower' implies being in a league of your own, and able to impose your political will on whoever you like apart from other superpowers; being the 'sole superpower' would therefore imply that you could do what you wanted.
We've clearly seen in Afghanistan and Iraq that that's not the case. Yes, Russia failed in Afghanistan too ... and one could argue that that was the first sign they were not a superpower any more. (After all, it was less than a decade later when they started to lose control of Eastern Europe.)
You are politically frustrated by Russia and China over international issues like Syria (I'm not talking about the military angle there but diplomacy at the UN). Countries in South America elect governments you don't like, and unlike the 70s and 80s, you can't just depose them and replace them with puppet regimes.
You were a superpower in the cold war, and you could push countries around, apart from Russia, who were in the same position. That's really not true today, and hence I wouldn't call you a superpower.
We've clearly seen in Afghanistan and Iraq that that's not the case. Yes, Russia failed in Afghanistan too ... and one could argue that that was the first sign they were not a superpower any more. (After all, it was less than a decade later when they started to lose control of Eastern Europe.)
You are politically frustrated by Russia and China over international issues like Syria (I'm not talking about the military angle there but diplomacy at the UN). Countries in South America elect governments you don't like, and unlike the 70s and 80s, you can't just depose them and replace them with puppet regimes.
You were a superpower in the cold war, and you could push countries around, apart from Russia, who were in the same position. That's really not true today, and hence I wouldn't call you a superpower.