A Century Up for Grabs

I still remember when analysts put forth the idea that the American "century" would be marked as lasting from 1898 to 1975. The Soviet Union would take our place as we had taken the place of Britain whose century in the lead faded in 1898 when we took our place on the world stage. There were foreign policy "realists" at the time who thought that it was their duty to manage our decline to our best advantage.

And I remember how Japan would supplant us. And Germany has been in there as has the European Union as a whole.

Now, of course, it is China that is supposed to replace us.

Except that they are well behind us in GDP now, let alone per capita GDP.  So our decline and China's rise has yet to take place.

Further, we actually have to lose. While some analysts are eager to write our obituary, China's rise in hardly inevitable. And our decline, whether absolute or relative, does not have to happen. Our future is still in our hands.

I mean, really, people, would anyone not named Thomas Friedman really want to trade places with China?

I say we deserve two centuries. Let's take it.