America's Decline Greatly Exaggerated

Is America really in serious decline?
By Steve Yetiv

Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear someone say so. Even President Obama captured this anxiety in his inaugural speech, pointing to a "nagging fear" that America's "decline is inevitable."

Of course, America's problems - from banking and debt crises to foreign security threats - are very serious. But, as bad as things are, here are six reasons why America's starring role on the world stage isn't over.

We've heard predictions of US decline before. Recall that Japan was widely heralded as the new power in the 1980s, with some wanting to write America's epitaph. Then Japan faced massive economic crisis in the 1990s, and America reasserted itself, as the Soviet Union fell.

At bottom, America's remarkable - and remarkably diverse - capabilities will ensure that today's crises are merely temporary setbacks. To paraphrase Mark Twain's joke about his own reported death, news of America's inevitable decline is greatly exaggerated. READ ALL...


* Steve Yetiv is a professor of political science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. His latest book is called "The Absence of Grand Strategy."