DoD Buzz: U.S. Power Slipping, Analysts Warn

[unhappycamper]

U.S. Power Slipping, Analysts Warn
By Greg Grant Friday, November 20th, 2009 1:02 pm
Posted in Air, Cyber Security, Intelligence, International, Land, Naval, Policy, Space

A warning to lawmakers of a shift underway in the global balance of power from the West to the East came this week from a rather sober source, Stephen Daggett, a defense policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service. CRS analysts are better known for providing carefully balanced and normative assessments of weapons systems or foreign policy issues, without weighing in on what can be politically tricky issues; which is why I hope lawmakers listened closely to what he said.

“We are in the midst of a shift away from American military predominance towards something different,” Daggett said, “we’re still for several years clearly going to be technologically predominant in military capabilities. How long we’ll have the ability to do all of the above, to project power in every kind, ground forces, maritime forces, air forces, I don’t know, but it’s eroding slowly over time.”

The glory days of the American century were the last 50 years of the 20th century, he said. The 21st century is slowly turning into something much more balanced in terms of power distribution than most generations of Americans have ever confronted. “The U.S. can still shape that environment… but our shaping of the environment has to be in a direction that leads to more cooperation with allies and efforts to build an agreement on the rules of the road with potential future foes like China,” particularly in areas like protecting the global commons, such as the maritime domain and cyber space.

One of my favorite China watchers, Zachary Karabell, of the New American Foundation, says current estimates project that the aggregate Chinese economy will surpass that of the U.S. by 2020. That will provide China tremendous purchasing power (the U.S. economy is roughly $14 trillion in size), on top of that it already has, relative to declining purchasing power in the West. In the recent global financial meltdown, he says, China came out on top; it has all the money and doesn’t have any debt. The Chinese feel like they’ve won.

War with China is not preordained. As Karabell and others say, it’s hard to imagine the U.S. and China going to war as their two economies have become so intimately intertwined. There will, however, clearly be consequences to a decline in relative U.S. power.


Rest of article at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/11/20/analysts-warn-of-eroding-u-s-power/?wh=wh

[msongs]

1. in other words, do what the US military wants, all the time, or else.... nt

[unhappycamper]

2. Muscle for hire.

Smedley Darlington Butler told us about this in his 1935 book, "War is a Racket".

[Crowman1979]

3. Well if that's the case, then we should try those who advocated trade with China for treason.

They are to blame for practically giving them money and at the same time running up a massive debt for our Military Industrial Complex. We never learned the lessons from the Cold War.