An American decline would undermine global security | csmonitor.com

If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world. - Former US President Richard Nixon in national address, April 30, 1970

An American decline would undermine global security | csmonitor.com: "Crude Awakenings' and 'The Absence of Grand Strategy.'"

While Dr. Yetiv´s central thesis is sound, US decline is already underway. The US as the great stabilizer of the international system is shattered like glass.

Moreover, America´s future as a great power is in the hands of its effete elites more than external forces. The current US administration denies America´s unique role in the world and seeks actively to diminish it. Thus the decline will become more pronounced in the coming years and global security will be jeopardized.

Internal difficulties - economic, social, and political - are undoing the US as a great power. Its financial house is in disarray while the current administration envisions adding more burdens through universal health care, extreme environmental restrictions, and a weaker dollar. The Social Security and Medicare programs are running in multi-trillion dollar debts. The political class is decadent, rudderless, and lacks the courage to confront domestic and foreign realities.

The failure to lead and lack of will to lead hasten the US decline. The great stabilizer in the past century of world history is steadily weakening from within with the active acknowledgment of its political class. Democracies more often decay from internal, not external, forces.

So, Dr. Yetiv´s tome may serve more as a historical chronicle of US foreign policy rather than a guiding light in an increasingly complex and dangerous world absent of US leadership.