The Changing of the Guard. O Render da Guarda
«(…) And this was before the fi nancial meltdown in 2008, which, with the
huge taxpayer-funded government bail-out of the fi nancial sector, will greatly
increase the size of the US national debt. This is not to suggest that, in the
short run, the US will be required to reduce its military expenditure for
reasons of fi nancial restraint: indeed, given the position that the US
military occupies in the national psyche, and the primary emphasis that US
foreign policy has traditionally placed on militar power, this seems most
unlikely. Being an imperial power, however, is a hugely expensive business and,
peering into the future, as its relative economic power declines, the United
States will no longer be able to sustain the military commitments and military
superiority that it presently enjoys.
A
new kind of world
We
stand on the eve of a different kind of world, but comprehending it is difficult:
we are so accustomed to dealing with the paradigms and param eters of the
contemporary world that we inevitably take them for granted, believing that
they are set in concrete rather than themselves being the subject of longer-run
cycles of historical change. Given that American global hegemony has held sway
for almost a lifetime, and that Western supremacy transcends many lifetimes,
this is not surprising. We are so used to the world being Western, even
American, that we have little idea what it would be like if it was not.
The West, moreover, has a strong vested
interest in the world being cast in its image, because this brings multifarious
benefi ts. As a matter of course, hegemonic powers seek to project their values
and institutions on to subordinate nations and the latter, in response, will,
depending on circumstances, adapt or genuflect towards their ways; if they don’t,
hegemonic powers generally seek to impose those values and arrangements on
them, even in extremis by force. For reasons of both mindset and interest, therefore, the
United States, and the West more generally, finds it difficult to visualize, or
accept, a world that involves a major and continuing diminution in its influence».
In
Martin Jacques, Quando a China Mandar no Mundo, 2009, 2012, Temas e Debates,
Círculo de Leitores, ISBN 978-989-644-196-8, Penguin Books, ISBN
978-0-713-992-540.
Cortesia de TeDebates/CdeLeitores/PenguinB/JDACT
JDACT, Martin Jacques, Literatura, Economia, China, Conhecimento,
