International Studies Group 4

This week’s topic came brings us back to the Leviathan and the true power of the state.  What I found interesting about this was the concept of a state’s finite time as the proverbial top dog.  In the lecture, the professor makes the point that not all states stay exactly where they are and it is true.  States that were once weak or behind the times are now big powers or bigger than they once were and strong powers are either not as powerful as they once were or one of the weakest of powers.

This brings me to the idea of America as one of the high rollers of the international community.  The country lost its top credit rating, so many large companies are selling their businesses to China, and, in fact, China owns a lot of prime land in America.  Plus, China holds the bill for most of America’s loans.  In an old class back in high school (maybe college), a teacher posed and interesting point about how the U.S. has been likened to the Roman Empire and he asked us if we thought the same.  If we did, we had to explain whether or not America was heading to a fall, like its Roman predecessor. 

My answer to that question is that in some ways there are similarities to America and Rome.  That includes the presumption that we know what is best for other countries and cultures.  We have a bad history on that front.  However, are we falling?  That, I do not know.  From a big picture standpoint, America is like a hormonal teenager that is finally starting to see that it is not the center of the universe and bad things can and will reach across the big blue sea and find you.  Other powers are emerging from all over and attacks from foreign powers on mainland is something the rest of the world is accustomed to. 

This all goes back to the question of whether or not we now have a global community.  It is hard to say we do not with technology, international businesses, and NGO’s that find ways to grab the world’s attention and show what we could never see in our backyards.