Empire down

[Gob]

For the first time in 40 years, a majority of Americans say the US plays a less important and powerful role in the world than it did a decade ago.

The Pew survey also found that 70% of Americans saw the US as less respected than in the past, nearly the same (71%) as under President George W Bush.

More than half of Americans (52%) - for the first time in 50 years - said the US should "mind its own business".

Some 56% disapproved of President Barack Obama's foreign policy.

Fifty-three percent of the public felt the US played a less important or powerful role as a world leader than a decade previously. The last time more than half of the public held that view was in 1974.

A decade ago, just 20% of Americans felt the same way.

In Tuesday's survey, only 17% of Americans said the US had a more important or powerful role in world affairs than 10 years ago.

Republicans were more likely to view the US as having declined in influence - 74% of them thought so. But 55% of independents said the same thing, up from 23% in 2004.

The survey also showed support for a less active US in world affairs. Some 51% of respondents said the US does "too much" to solve world problems.

Fifty-three percent of Republicans, 46% of Democrats and 55% of independents said the US should mind its own business.

Respondents also thought the US should be less engaged internationally.

A plurality of respondents (39%) believed the US should be less involved in seeking to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Some 36% thought Washington's current level of engagement in that issue was enough.

But the survey did not suggest an entirely isolationist outlook was taking hold among Americans.

US support for more participation in the global economy has increased, it found.

Some 77% said the growing trade and business ties between the US and other countries was a good thing.

However, there was a mistaken belief among many that China is the world's top economic power - 48% of respondents thought so. Just 31% correctly said it was the US.

America's gross domestic product is nearly twice that of China, according to World Bank data, although the gap between the two has been closing.

President Obama's foreign policy was approved of by only 34% of respondents in the Pew survey.

The public overwhelmingly viewed dimly his handling of Syria, Iran, China and Afghanistan. Only on terrorism did more respondents approve (51%) than disapprove of his approach.

While Islamic extremist groups such as al-Qaeda were still considered the top threat by survey respondents, 70% ranked cyber-attacks from other countries as a major threat, placing it on par with concerns about Iran and North Korean's nuclear programmes.

The survey of the general public was conducted between 30 October and 6 November among 2,003 adults, said Pew Research Center.

[dales]

Not so fast there, Gob.

It took the British Empire many years to contract, it will be so with Pax Americana

[Big RR]

Where is this "Pax" of which you speak?

[rubato]

The transition from autocracy to democracy is problematic and has many layers of difficulty to be worked through. Some of them are psychological. The same is true for the analogous situation in the international sphere where the imposition of order and relative peace by one country is replaced by a more pluralistic decison-making.

But eventually it is necessary.

It is inevitable that the US will have less relative power militarily and economically as the rest of the world becomes more prosperous and more highly developed. And for the most part it is a good thing. But we should be thinking about what conditions we need to bring about to prevent de-evolution into global anarchy. One is that we need to develop more countries who, like France recently, can be leaders on the world stage; who have the practical capacity and clarity of vision to act when it is needed.

Another thing we need to do is stop castrating the UN so that it can learn to be the 'responsible authority' which it must be in a peaceful world.

yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Turning a little Francophile are we? Hmm? But the above book is in any case recommended as having jolly good answers.