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> The fact that the US has had an outlier position in terms of Geopolitical influence for the last half century is not a guarantee of this being true in the fut

> The fact that the US has had an outlier position in terms of Geopolitical influence for the last half century is not a guarantee of this being true in the future. In fact, we should absolutely look at this as a historical fluke. We were the only major world power that didn't have significant WWII battles in our own territory destroying our industrial infrastructure. From 1945 on, we were #1 primarily because most of the European and Asian powers had been destroyed by the war. That effect doesn't last forever. The US does have a lot going for it. We have very ample natural resources, natural borders that are cheaper to enforce, and a large mostly culturally unified population. But that default presumption that US is #1 at all things is naturally fading as WWII recedes into the past.

vmception 6y ago
(number 1 in a contest nobody still around even entered into, we look like a the kid parading their most improved award that they keep being the only person in the class to get every year)
vmception 6y ago
The US uniquely has resources and market tolerance from the international community to steward those resources and be a nation with 21st century infrastructure, it just has no internal consensus to do it or how to do it
godelski 6y ago
To add to this, don't forget that post WW2 the West agreed that the US would be the world police and that by having a singular super power wars would be less likely (since when countries have large militaries they want to justify them. Like... the US does)[0]. Thus allowing the US to create its military industrial complex, which has been highly profitable for it (a lot because of the cold war). [0] This surprisingly panned out decently well, considering we haven't had a war between major countries in a long time.
- BurningFrog 6y ago
  The singular super power era started around 1990. The 45 years before that the world had two super powers, fighting in various cold and hot wars.
  - godelski 6y ago
    I think you're missing the part where I specified The West. To clarify, that means European countries, America, and Canada. Yes, Russia was an opposing super power, but they were the super power of the East. And to clarify more, there still is no singular super power. Russia is still a super power and China is a super power. We are still in a cold war, but things have changed dramatically in how it is being fought and with who.

vmception 6y ago

(number 1 in a contest nobody still around even entered into, we look like a the kid parading their most improved award that they keep being the only person in the class to get every year)

vmception 6y ago

The US uniquely has resources and market tolerance from the international community to steward those resources and be a nation with 21st century infrastructure, it just has no internal consensus to do it or how to do it

godelski 6y ago

To add to this, don't forget that post WW2 the West agreed that the US would be the world police and that by having a singular super power wars would be less likely (since when countries have large militaries they want to justify them. Like... the US does)[0]. Thus allowing the US to create its military industrial complex, which has been highly profitable for it (a lot because of the cold war). [0] This surprisingly panned out decently well, considering we haven't had a war between major countries in a long time.

BurningFrog 6y ago
The singular super power era started around 1990. The 45 years before that the world had two super powers, fighting in various cold and hot wars.
- godelski 6y ago
  I think you're missing the part where I specified The West. To clarify, that means European countries, America, and Canada. Yes, Russia was an opposing super power, but they were the super power of the East. And to clarify more, there still is no singular super power. Russia is still a super power and China is a super power. We are still in a cold war, but things have changed dramatically in how it is being fought and with who.