Project Syndicate: How an arrogant and pathological America could lose the new cold war

NEW YORK (Project Syndicate)The United States appears to have entered a new cold war with both China and Russia. And U.S. leaders portrayal of the confrontation as one between democracy and authoritarianism fails the smell test, especially at a time when the same leaders are actively courting a systematic human-rights abuser like Saudi Arabia.

Such hypocrisy suggests that it is at least partly global hegemony, not values, that is really at stake.

For two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the U.S. was clearly number one. But then came disastrously misguided wars in the Middle East, the 2008 financial crash, rising inequality, the opioid epidemic, and other crises that seemed to cast doubt on the superiority of Americas economic model.

“ Cold wars ultimately are won with the soft power of attraction and persuasion. To come out on top, we must convince the rest of the world to buy not just our products, but also the social, political, and economic system were selling. ”

Deeply pathological

Moreover, between Donald Trumps election, the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol, numerous mass shootings, a Republican Party bent on voter suppression, and the rise of conspiracy cults like QAnon, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that some aspects of American political and social life have become deeply pathological.

Of course, America does not want to be dethroned. But it is simply inevitable that China will outstrip the U.S. economically, regardless of what official indicator one uses. Not only is its population four times larger than Americas; its economy also has been growing three times faster for many years (indeed, it already surpassed the U.S. in purchasing-power-parity terms back in 2015).