American decline
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American decline is the idea that the
United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
is diminishing in power
geopolitically Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
,
militarily A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
, financially,
economically Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
, demographically, socially, morally, spiritually, culturally, in matters of healthcare, and/or on environmental issues. There has been debate over the extent of the decline, and whether it is relative or absolute. Those who believe America is in decline are declinists.
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
challenging the United States for global dominance constitutes a core issue in the debate over American decline. For instance, the United States is no longer an uncontested
superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...
in every region of the world. According to the 2021
Asia Power Index The Asia Power Index is an index that measures resources and influence to rank the relative power of states in Indo-Pacific, published by the Lowy Institute annually from 2018. The Index ranks 26 countries and territories. The United States takes ...
, within
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, the United States still takes the lead on ''military capacity'', ''cultural influence'', ''resilience'', ''future resources'', ''diplomatic influence'', and ''defense networks'', but falls behind
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in two parameters: ''economic capability'' and ''economic relationships''. Shrinking military advantages, deficit spending, geopolitical overreach, and a shift in moral, social, and behavioral conditions have been associated with American decline. Some scholars say that the perception of decline, or declinism, has long been part of American culture. In a poll conducted January 11–13, 2021 of 1,019 Americans, 79% of those surveyed said that America is "falling apart".


Assessment

According to American public intellectual
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
, America's decline started shortly after the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, with the "
loss of China In American political discourse, the "loss of China" is the unexpected Chinese Communist Party Chinese Communist Revolution, takeover of mainland China from the U.S.-backed Chinese Kuomintang government in 1949 and therefore the "loss of China to co ...
" followed by the Indochina Wars. By 1970, the United States' share of world wealth had declined to about 25%, which was still large but sharply reduced. Chomsky dismisses the "remarkable rhetoric of the several years of triumphalism in the 1990s" as "mostly self-delusion". However, Chomsky argued in 2011 that power will not shift to China and India, because these are poor countries with severe internal problems, and there will be no competitor for global hegemonic power in the foreseeable future. According to
Jeet Heer Jeet Heer is a Canadian author, comics critic, literary critic and journalist. He is a national affairs correspondent for ''The Nation'' magazine and a former staff writer at ''The New Republic''. As of 2014, he was writing a doctoral thesis at Yor ...
, U.S. hegemony has always been supported by three pillars: "economic strength, military might, and the soft power of cultural dominance." According to American diplomat
Eric S. Edelman Eric Steven Edelman (born October 27, 1951) is an American diplomat who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2005–2009), U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (2003–2005), U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Finland (1998–2001), and Princip ...
, the declinists, or those who believe America is in decline, have been "consistently wrong" in the past. However, American political scientist
Aaron Friedberg Aaron Louis Friedberg (born April 16, 1956) is an American political scientist. He served from 2003 to 2005 in the office of the Vice President of the United States as deputy assistant for national-security affairs and director of policy planning ...
cautioned that just because the declinists were wrong in the past does not mean they will be incorrect in their future predictions, and that some of the arguments by the declinists deserve to be taken seriously. Political scientist
Matthew Kroenig Matthew Kroenig is an American political scientist, author, national security strategist. He is professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Kroenig is best known for his ...
argues Washington has "followed the same basic, three-step geopolitical plan since 1945. First, the United States built the current, rules-based international system... Second, it welcomed into the club any country that played by the rules, even former adversaries... and third, the U.S. worked with its allies to defend the system from those countries or groups that would challenge it."


Military

According to a 98-page report by National Defense Strategy Commission, "America's longstanding military advantages have diminished", and "The country's strategic margin for error has become distressingly small. Doubts about America's ability to deter and, if necessary, defeat opponents and honor its global commitments have proliferated." The report cited "political dysfunction" and "budget caps" as factors restraining the government from keeping pace with threats in what the report described as "a crisis of national security." The report wrote that, to neutralize American strength, China and
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
were trying to achieve "regional hegemony" and were developing "aggressive military buildups". In 2018, Air Force General Frank Gorenc said that the United States airpower advantage over Russia and China was shrinking. According to Loren Thompson, the military's decline began when defense secretary
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
stopped a hundred major weapons programs 25 years ago when the Soviet Union collapsed.


Deficit spending

Paul Kennedy Paul Michael Kennedy (born 17 June 1945) is a British historian specialising in the history of international relations, economic power and grand strategy. He has published prominent books on the history of British foreign policy and great pow ...
posits that continued deficit spending, especially on military build-up, is the single most important reason for decline of any great power. The costs of the wars in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
were as of 2017 estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion, which Kennedy deems a major victory for
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
, whose announced goal was to humiliate America by showcasing its casualty averseness and lack of will to persist in a long term conflict. By 2011, the U.S. military budget — almost matching that of the rest of the world combined — was higher in real terms than at any time since WWII. Kennedy made similar assessments about American decline in his book ''
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers ''The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000'', by Paul Kennedy, first published in 1987, explores the politics and economics of the Great Powers from 1500 to 1980 and the reason for their decli ...
'' in which he projected "a need to 'manage' affairs so that the relative erosion of the United States' position takes place slowly and smoothly". The book was published in 1989, three years before the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
and several years before the bursting of the
Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration ...
, leaving the United States as the sole remaining superpower and the dominant political and economic power internationally.


Geopolitical overreach

According to historian Emmanuel Todd, an expansion in military activity and aggression can appear to be an increase in power, but can mask a decline in power. He observes that this occurred with the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in the 1970s, and with the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, and that the United States may be going through a similar period in time. There were 38 large and medium-sized American facilities spread around the globe in 2005—mostly air and naval bases—approximately the same number as Britain's 36 naval bases and army garrisons at its imperial zenith in 1898. Yale historian
Paul Kennedy Paul Michael Kennedy (born 17 June 1945) is a British historian specialising in the history of international relations, economic power and grand strategy. He has published prominent books on the history of British foreign policy and great pow ...
compares the U.S. situation to Great Britain's prior to
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, saying that the map of U.S. bases is similar.


Culture

Commentators such as
Allan Bloom Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell Universi ...
,
E. D. Hirsch Eric "E. D." Donald Hirsch Jr. (born 1928) is an American educator, literary critic, and theorist of education. He is professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. Hirsch is best known for his 1987 book ''C ...
and Russel Jacoby have suggested American culture is in decline.
Samuel P. Huntington Samuel Phillips Huntington (April 18, 1927December 24, 2008) was an American political scientist, adviser, and academic. He spent more than half a century at Harvard University, where he was director of Harvard's Center for International Affairs ...
commented critically on a trend in American culture and politics of predicting constant decline since the late 1950s. As he saw it, declinism came in several distinct waves, namely in reaction to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik; to the Vietnam War; to the oil shock of 1973; to Soviet tensions in the late 1970s; and to the general unease that accompanied the end of the Cold War. According to American historian
Russell Jacoby Russell Jacoby (born April 23, 1945) is a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an author and a critic of academic culture. His fields of interest are twentieth-century European and American intellectual and cul ...
, the rise of academic
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, radical political economies, and critical literary and
cultural studies Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
since the World War II has contributed to the decline of American culture.
William J. Bennett William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservatism, conservative politician and Political commentary, political commentator who served as United States Secretary of Education, secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 under Pres ...
argues that America's cultural decline is signaling "a shift in the public's attitudes and beliefs". According to the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, published in 1993, statistically portraying the moral, social and behavioral conditions of modern American society, often described as 'values', America's cultural condition was in decline with respect to the situations of 30 years ago, 1963. The index showed that there has been an increase in violent crime by more than 6 times,
illegitimate birth Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...
s by more than 5 times, the divorce rate by 5 times, the percentage of children living in single-parent homes by four times, and the teenage suicide rate by three times during the 30-year period. According to Kenneth Weisbrode, though some statistics point to American decline (increased death rate, political paralysis, and increased crime), "Americans have had a low culture for a very long time, and have long promoted it". He thinks that the obsession with decline is not something new, as something dating back to the Puritans. "Cultural decline, in other words, is as American as apple pie," Weisbrode argues. Weisbrode likens pre-revolutionary France and present-day America for their vulgarity, which he argues is "an almost natural extension or outcome of all that is civilized: a glorification of ego." Daniel Bell argued that the perception of decline is part of the culture. "What the long history of American 'declinism' -- as opposed to America's actual possible decline -- suggests," says Daniel Bell, "is that these anxieties have an existence of their own that is quite distinct from the actual geopolitical position of our country; that they arise as much from something deeply rooted in the collective psyche of our chattering classes as from sober political and economic analyses." According to
RealClearPolitics RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site features selected political ...
, declarations of America's declining power have been common since the beginning of the country. According to Australian journalist Nick Bryant, "warnings of American decline are by no means new". In the 20th century, declinism came in several distinct waves. In a 2011 book,
Thomas L. Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global tra ...
and
Michael Mandelbaum Michael Mandelbaum (born 1946) is a professor and director of the American Foreign Policy program at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He has written a number of books on American foreign policy and edited ...
argued that the United States was in the midst of "its fifth wave of Declinism." The first had come "with the 'Sputnik Shock' of 1957," the second with the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, the third with President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
's "malaise" and the rise of Japan, the fourth with the increased power of China. According to
Robert Lieber Robert J. Lieber (born September 29, 1941) is an American academic and Professor of Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Lieber is the author or editor of a total of seventeen books and has served as th ...
in 2021, “declinists’ proclamations about America have appeared ever since America’s founding" and “it can be instructive to compare current arguments and prescriptions of the new declinism with the ideas of earlier eras.”


Political polarization

Many commentators and polls have observed an increase in political polarization in the US. Some researchers have linked trends towards political polarization in the United States and other countries to increased
economic inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
and economic decline. David Leonhardt writes that "incomes, wealth and life expectancy in the United States have stagnated for much of the population, contributing to an angry national mood and exacerbating political divisions. The result is a semidysfunctional government that is eroding many of the country’s largest advantages over China." According to a report by
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
researchers including sociologist
Philip N. Howard Philip N. Howard is a sociologist and communication researcher who studies the impact of information technologies on democracy and social inequality. He studies how new information technologies are used in both civic engagement and social contr ...
,
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
played a major role in political polarization in the United States, due to computational propaganda -- "the use of automation,
algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing c ...
, and big-data analytics to manipulate public life"—such as the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories. The researchers highlighted the role of the Russian Internet Research Agency in attempts to undermine democracy in the US and exacerbate existing political divisions. The most prominent methods of misinformation were ostensibly organic posts rather than ads, and influence operation activity increased after, and was not limited to, the 2016 election.
Sarah Kreps Dr. Sarah E. Kreps is an American political scientist, United States Air Force veteran, and policy analyst who focuses on U.S. foreign and defense policy. She is a professor of government at Cornell University, adjunct professor of law at Cornell L ...
of
Brookings Brookings may refer to: Organizations * Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Places * Brookings, Oregon, USA * Brookings, South Dakota, USA * Brookings County, South Dakota, USA ...
points out that in the wake of foreign influence operations which are nothing new but boosted by digital tools, the U.S. has had to spend exorbitantly on defensive measures "just to break even on democratic legitimacy." Michael McFaul, former
U.S. Ambassador to Russia The ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Russian Federation. Since September 4, 2022, Elizabeth Rood is serving as the ...
from 2012 to 2014, believes the U.S. has faced a democratic decline, stemming from elite polarization and damage done by former President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
to trust in elections and bonds with democratic allies. McFaul states that the decline in democracy weakens national security and heavily restrains foreign policy. According to 2021 survey data compiled from YouGov, Nationscape, and the Voter Study Group, 36% of Republican and 33% of Democrat respondents say that they "feel justified to use violence to advance political goals". This represents a sharp increase from 2017, in which only 8% of Republican and 8% of Democrat respondents said the same. Similarly, a survey performed by the University of Virginia Center for Politics found that more than 80% of both Democrats and Republicans believe that the opposing party poses "a clear and present danger to American democracy". Overall, more than 80% of survey respondents said they are afraid that they or someone close to them will experience "personal loss or suffering due to the effects" of the opposing party's policies.


Economy

By 1970 U.S. share of world production had fallen from 40% to 25%, while economist Jeffrey Sachs observed the US share of world income was 24.6% in 1980 falling to 19.1% in 2011. The ratio of average CEO earnings to average workers’ pay in the U.S. went from 24:1 in 1965 to 262:1 in 2005. In 2018, income inequality reached the highest level recorded by the Census Bureau. In the 1980s the United States went from the world's largest creditor nation to becoming the world's largest debtor nation. At the start of the decade U.S. net foreign assets were larger than combined net foreign assets of all other creditors. At the end foreign-owned U.S. securities and real assets were larger than U.S. owned foreign securities and assets. In the interval it was advantageous for foreign investors to purchase U.S. dollar securities and real assets to absorb their excess capital. In effect, significant foreign investment began to influence the American economy. Some centrists believe that the American fiscal crisis stems from the rising expenditures on social programs or alternatively from the increases in military spending for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, both of which would lead to decline. However,
Richard Lachmann Richard Lachmann (May 17, 1956 – September 19, 2021) was an American sociologist and specialist in comparative historical sociology who was a professor at University at Albany, SUNY. Lachmann is best known as the author of the book, "Capitalist ...
argues that if military or overall spending is not pressuring the U.S. economy, they would not contribute to U.S. decline. Lachmann describes the real problem as "the misallocation of government revenue and expenditure, resulting in resources being diverted from the tasks vital to maintain economic or geopolitical dominance." Kennedy argues that as military expenses grow, this reduces investments in economic growth, which eventually "leads to the downward spiral of slower growth, heavier taxes, deepening domestic splits over spending priorities, and weakening capacity to bear the burdens of defense."


Health

Various analysts have connected health challenges in the United States, such as rising
healthcare costs Health care prices in the United States of America describes market and non-market factors that determine pricing, along with possible causes as to why prices are higher than other countries. Compared to other OECD countries, U.S. healthcare costs ...
, to overall national decline. A 2018 paper in the '' American Journal of Public Health'' reviewed multiple factors that were observed by previous researchers such as rising health care costs, decreased life expectancy, and an increase in "
deaths of despair The diseases of despair are three classes of behavior-related medical conditions that increase in groups of people who experience despair due to a sense that their long-term social and economic prospects are bleak. The three disease types are dr ...
" such as
suicides Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...
and opioid overdoses, and connected this to "the long-term malaise seen in the United States". The rate of maternal mortality has more than doubled in the U.S. since the late 1980s in stark contrast to other developed nations. The economists
Anne Case Anne Catherine Case, Lady Deaton, (born July 27, 1958) is an American economist who is currently the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Early life and career She graduated from ...
and Angus Deaton attribute this rising mortality, which is mostly impacting the
working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
, to the flaws in contemporary
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
. According to the
Social Progress Index The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progre ...
, the US is facing "small but steady declines" in health and other matters and along with
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
was one of few nations to slide backwards on the index between 2010 and 2020. Concerning the index, Nicholas Kristof said this points to structural problems that predate Trump, Trump being "a symptom of this malaise, and also a cause of its acceleration". Many scientific experts and former government officials have criticized Donald Trump and his administration's role in the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
response, such as interfering with science agencies and perpetrating falsehoods during the COVID-19 pandemic. In ''Nature'', Jeff Tollefson warned that Trump's damage to science could take decades to recover from, and some of this damage could be permanent. In October 2020,
Pew Research The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the wor ...
found that Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic eroded America's already declining global reputation. According to data from the CDC, the average US life expectancy, after falling to 77 years in 2020, in 2021 further declined to 76.4 years, a record-low since 1996. COVID-19 deaths were the main cause of this decline, as well as rising mortality rates from suicide, liver disease and drug overdoses.


Competition with China


Factors and debates

China challenging the United States for global dominance constitutes a core issue in the debate over the American decline. The United States is no longer the only uncontested superpower to dominate in every domain (i.e. military, culture, economy, technology, diplomatic) in every region of the world. According to the 2021 Asia Power Index, within Asia, the United States still takes the lead on ''military capacity'', ''cultural influence'', ''resilience'', ''future resources'', ''diplomatic influence'', and ''defense networks'', but falls behind China in two parameters: ''economic capability'' and ''economic relationships''. In 2020, China signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade bloc. ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine argued the US could be "the big loser" of the deal. However, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported that the tariff-related liberalizations from RCEP would be modest, calling it a " paper tiger". A comprehensive study into the deal shows that it would add just 0.08% to China's 2030 GDP without India's participation. China surpassed the US in trade in goods with the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
for the first time in 2020 while the US remained the European Union’s largest trading partner overall. In December, the EU announced the
Comprehensive Agreement on Investment Comprehensive may refer to: *Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. * Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement ...
with China was concluded in principle. Some analysts said the agreement may damage relations with the US. In March 2021, it was reported that there were serious doubts about the ratification of the deal in light of the reciprocal sanctions the EU and China imposed against each other over the ongoing human rights violations committed by the Chinese government against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang. In 2020, China surpassed the US for a second time as the world's leading nation for
foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...
(FDI). Daniel Rosen, a long-time analyst of U.S.-China economic relationship, said that it is natural that foreign investment would decline sharply in the U.S. under extraordinary circumstances due to its open market economy, a feature that China lacks. Rosen said, "There is no reason to be concerned about the outlook for the FDI in the United States providing that the U.S. is sticking with its basic open-market competitive system." Previously, in 2003, China surpassed the US once as the biggest recipient of FDI. Political scientist
Matthew Kroenig Matthew Kroenig is an American political scientist, author, national security strategist. He is professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Kroenig is best known for his ...
states "according to an emerging conventional wisdom, China has the leg up on the U.S. in part because its authoritarian government can strategically plan for the long term, unencumbered by competing branches of government, regular elections, and public opinion. Yet this faith in autocratic ascendance and democratic decline is contrary to historical fact." Kroenig's makes the argument that
open societies Open society (french: société ouverte) is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in 1932, and describes a dynamic system inclined to moral universalism.Thomas Mautner (2005), 2nd ed. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy'' Open so ...
"facilitate innovation, trust in financial markets, and economic growth." Kroenig also suggests "the plans often cited as evidence of China’s farsighted vision, the
Belt and Road Initiative The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road ( zh, link=no, 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 150 ...
and
Made in China 2025 Made in China 2025 ()Made in China 2025
. CSIS, June 1, 2015.
(MIC25, MIC 2025, or ...
, were announced by Xi only in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Both are way too recent to be celebrated as brilliant examples of successful, long-term strategic planning." According to David Leonhardt, "Beyond the economy, China has also made stark progress in other areas over the past decade. It is close to becoming the world’s leading funder of scientific research and development, thanks to soaring increases in China and meager ones in the United States. The quality of American science remains higher, but the gap has narrowed." However, according to
Barry Naughton Barry J. Naughton is the So Kwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He specializes in the Economy of China, modern Chinese eco ...
, even at the
purchasing power parity Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currency, currencies. PPP is effectively the ratio of the price of ...
conversion rate, the average urban income was just over , and the average rural income was just under in China. Naughton questioned whether it is economically sensible for a
middle income country The category of newly industrialized country (NIC), newly industrialized economy (NIE) or middle income country is a socioeconomic classification applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists. They represent ...
of this kind to be taking "such a disproportionate part of the risky expenditure involved in pioneering new technologies". According to former
Australian prime minister The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the principl ...
Kevin Rudd, "China has multiple domestic vulnerabilities that are rarely noted in the media. The United States, on the other hand, always has its weaknesses on full public display, but has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity for reinvention and restoration." Ryan Hass, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
, said that much of the narrative of China "inexorably rising and on the verge of overtaking a faltering United States" was promoted by China's state-affiliated media outlets. Hass went on to say, "Authoritarian systems excel at showcasing their strengths and concealing their weaknesses. But policymakers in Washington must be able to distinguish between the image Beijing presents and the realities it confronts." According to American economist
Scott Rozelle Scott Douglas Rozelle (, born 1955) is an American development economist currently serving as a researcher at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and one of the co-directors of the Rural Education Action Program (REAP) at Sta ...
and researcher Natalie Hell, "China looks a lot more like 1980s Mexico or Turkey than 1980s Taiwan or South Korea. No country has ever made it to high-income status with high school attainment rates below 50 percent. With China's high school attainment rate of 30 percent, the country could be in grave trouble."Hell, Natalie, and Rozelle, Scott. ''Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise''. University of Chicago Press, 2020. At age 30, the number of years of schooling in China is 34.6 percent less than in the United States. At age 40, the gap widens to 38.9 percent. At age 50, it further widens to 47 percent. At age 60, it becomes 55.5 percent. Rozelle and Hell warn that China risks falling into the
middle income trap The middle income trap is an economic development situation in which a country that attains a certain income (due to given advantages) gets stuck at that level. The term was introduced by the World Bank in 2006 and is defined by them as the 'middl ...
due to the rural urban divide in education and
structural unemployment Structural unemployment is a form of involuntary unemployment caused by a mismatch between the skills that workers in the economy can offer, and the skills demanded of workers by employers (also known as the skills gap). Structural unemployment i ...
. Ryan Hass at the Brookings Institution said that China's working-age population is already shrinking, adding, "by 2050, China will go from having eight workers per retiree now to two workers per retiree. Moreover, it has already squeezed out most of the large productivity gains that come with a population becoming more educated and urban and adopting technologies to make manufacturing more efficient."
Nicholas Eberstadt Nicholas Eberstadt (born 1955) is an American political economist. He holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a political think tank. He is also a Senior Adviser to the National Bureau of Asia ...
, an economist and demographic expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said that current demographic trends will overwhelm China's economy and geopolitics, making its rise much more uncertain. He said, "The age of heroic economic growth is over."


Foreign policy

In May 2020, in accordance with the
John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA 2019) is a United States federal law which specifies the budget, expenditures and policies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal year 2019. It was si ...
, the
Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
delivered a report, "U.S. Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China" to members of the U.S. Congress. The report states a
whole-of-government approach Whole-of-Government Approach (“WGA”) refers to the joint activities performed by diverse ministries, public administrations and public agencies in order to provide a common solution to particular problems or issues. The approach and content of ...
to China under the 2017 National Security Strategy, which says it is time the U.S. "rethink the failed policies of the past two decades – policies based on the assumption that engagement with rivals and their inclusion in international institutions and global commerce would turn them into benign actors and trustworthy partners". The report says it "reflects a fundamental reevaluation of how the United States understands and responds to" the leaders of China, adding "The United States recognizes the long-term strategic competition between our two systems." In February 2021,
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Joe Biden said that China is the "most serious competitor" that poses challenges on the "prosperity, security, and democratic values" of the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that previous optimistic approaches to China were flawed, and that China poses "the most significant challenge of any nation-state in the world to the United States". Blinken also agreed that Biden's predecessor,
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, "was right in taking a tougher approach to China". In April 2021, the
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
introduced major legislation in response to China's growing clout in international affairs. The bill, titled "Strategic Competition Act of 2021", reflects hardline attitude of both congressional Democrats and Republicans, and sets out to counter the Chinese government's diplomatic and strategic initiatives. In May 2021, the Strategic Competition Act of 2021 was consolidated into a larger bill, the
United States Innovation and Competition Act The United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA) (), formerly known as the Endless Frontier Act, was United States legislation sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Todd Young (R-IN) authorizing $110 billion for basic and ...
(USICA), authorizing for basic and advanced technology research over a five year period. In June 2021, the USICA passed 68–32 in the Senate with bipartisan support.


Comparison with earlier states

Samuel P. Huntington noticed that predictions of American decline have been part of American politics since the late 1950s. According to Daniel Bell, "many of America's leading commentators have had a powerful impulse consistently to see the United States as a weak, 'bred out' basket case that will fall to stronger rivals as inevitably as Rome fell to the barbarians, or France to
Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
at Agincourt." Huntington critiqued declinism as misguided, but praised it on some counts, "declinism has predicted the imminent shrinkage of American power. In all its phases that prediction has become central to preventing that shrinkage". Michael Hudson points to debt forgiveness being necessary when individuals' debts to the state are too large. Whereas earlier empires (Assyrian) survived through periodic debt forgiveness, this practice ended with the Roman empire, resulting in impoverishment and dispossession of farmers, creating a growing
lumpenproletariat In Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' () is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary a ...
. The same process contributed to the collapse of the British empire and continues today, with periodic financial crises (1930s, 2008) which are only relieved by government bailouts and/or war. Hudson adds that every time history repeats itself, the price goes up, i.e., the U.S. is being destroyed by bank debt with no forgiveness mechanism, making collapse inevitable. Political scientist Paul K. Macdonald writes that great powers can be in relative or absolute decline and discussed the ways they often respond. The most common is retrenchment (reducing some but not all commitments of the state).


Roman Empire

Certain commentators, historians and politicians believe U.S. is heir to the Roman Empire. According to
Kristofer Allerfeldt Kristofer Allerfeldt is a British historian and farmer. He teaches History at the University of Exeter. Career Allerfeldt's research focuses on the history of racism, nationalism and organised crime in the United States, and the creation of mode ...
, there are divergent views regarding Rome vs U.S. comparison. He believes that the "use of the Roman metaphor provides a scholarly patina to the expression of visceral hopes and fears."


Britain

Kennedy argues that "British financial strength was the single most decisive factor in its victories over France during the 18th century. This chapter ends on the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
and the fusion of British financial strength with a newfound industrial strength." He predicts that, as the U.S. dollar loses its role as world currency, it will not be able to continue financing its military expenditures via deficit spending. According to
Richard Lachmann Richard Lachmann (May 17, 1956 – September 19, 2021) was an American sociologist and specialist in comparative historical sociology who was a professor at University at Albany, SUNY. Lachmann is best known as the author of the book, "Capitalist ...
, the U.S. would last much longer if, like Britain, it could restrict particular families and elites from exclusively controlling offices and governmental powers.


Soviet Union

Historian Harold James published an article in 2020 titled "Late Soviet America", comparing the present-day United States to the former Soviet Union. James wrote that many aspects of the US now resemble the late Soviet Union: intensification of social conflict, ethnic/racial rivalries, and economic decline. He predicted that the dollar may lose its value and start looking like the
Soviet rouble The ruble or rouble (russian: рубль) was the currency of the Soviet Union, introduced in 1922, replacing the Imperial Russian ruble. One ruble was divided into 100 kopecks ( – ''kopeyka'', ''kopeyki''). Soviet banknotes and coins were pr ...
. James ended the article saying that the economic decline will continue, even if there is change in leadership, pointing to
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
's inability to prevent
collapse Collapse or its variants may refer to: Concepts * Collapse (structural) * Collapse (topology), a mathematical concept * Collapsing manifold * Collapse, the action of collapsing or telescoping objects * Collapsing user interface elements ** ...
after succeeding
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
. Also in 2020, political commentator
Julius Krein Julius Krein (born 1986) is an American conservative political writer and editor best known as the founder of the journal ''American Affairs''. Early life and education Krein was raised in Eureka, South Dakota, the son of Gary and Nancy Krein. He ...
argued that the ongoing America's state of decline parallels the late Soviet Union vis-à-vis the "unmistakable" slide into gerontocracy. Alex Lo, a columnist from ''
South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
'', wrote in 2021 that " Soviet Russia under Mikhail Gorbachev didn't know they had already lost the empire until it was too late. The fate of the United States will not be any different."


Commentators

* Philosophers Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, theorize in the mid-1990s about an ongoing transition to an emergent construct created among ruling powers which the authors call "Empire". * American historian Morris Berman wrote a trilogy of books published between 2000 and 2011 about the decline of American civilization. *
Igor Panarin Igor Nikolaevich Panarin (russian: link=no, И́горь Никола́евич Пана́рин, ; born 30 October 1958) is a Russian professor and political scientist.
, a political scientist and graduate of the Higher Military Command School of Telecommunications of the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
, predicted that, starting in 1998, the US would collapse into six parts in 2010. He also wrote ''The Crash of the Dollar and the Disintegration of the USA'' (2009). * Russian political analyst
Stanislav Belkovsky Stanislav Aleksandrovich Belkovsky (russian: Станисла́в Алекса́ндрович Белко́вский, born 7 February 1971, Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian political analyst and communication specialist. He is a founder and ...
predicted that it might be America's turn to plunge into self-destructive violence and inevitable collapse. * American journalist
Chris Hedges Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, author, and commentator. In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for ''The Christian Science Mon ...
, in his 2018 book ''America The Farewell Tour'', predicts that "within a decade, two at most" America will cease to be the dominant super-power in the world. * In 2017,
Evan Osnos Evan Lionel Richard Osnos (born December 24, 1976) is an American journalist and author. He has been a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' since 2008, best known for his coverage of politics and foreign affairs, in the United States and China. His ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' outlined a potential scenario for a violent revolution in the US and the consequences for the “super-rich.” *
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
was the first presidential candidate to promote the idea that the United States was in decline. *After the January 6 United States Capitol riots, ''
HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' reporter Emily Peck wrote an article titled "The Capitol Riot Crystalizes 4 Years Of American Decline". *
Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
, former
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
of
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
(1993–2003), described Trump's election as a "monumental error" that heralded "the true end of the American empire" in a 2018 memoir. *The American
think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...
argues that while the US is indeed declining, thinking it is irreversible is "irrational pessimism". *According to ''
The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'', adoption of neutral path by Asian, African, and Latin American countries amid the Ukraine invasion could signal "a clean break from the past several centuries of Western hegemony, not just in politics but in culture and ideas as well."


Public opinion

2018 polls placed the U.S. leadership a notch below
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
's 31% and left
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
as the most popular power with an approval of 41%. A 2019 survey carried out by
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...
shows that a majority of Americans predicted the U.S. economy to be weaker in 2050. Also, the survey says, a majority of the people thought the U.S. would be "a country with a burgeoning national debt, a wider gap between the rich and the poor and a workforce threatened by automation." In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, public opinion of both the United States and China worsened in most countries surveyed by Pew Research. The opinion of the US was more favorable than that of China overall; opinion of the handling of the pandemic was negative in both countries, but the opinion of China's handling of the pandemic was more favorable than the US. According to a January 2021 survey of 1,032 people from
ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...
countries by Singapore's ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, 61.5% of the respondents said they would choose the U.S. over China if they had to pick sides in the ongoing rivalry between the two countries. Support for the U.S. rose 7.9% from the previous year's survey. In a 2021 poll of 1,019 Americans just after the riot at the Capitol, 79% of those surveyed said that America is "falling apart". At the same time, a similar proportion of survey respondents indicated that they are "proud to be an American". In late January 2021, Pew reported that as Biden's inauguration approached, polls showed the international opinion of the United States in Europe improved significantly, raising to 72–84% optimism about US relations in Britain, France, and Germany. A January 2022 poll conducted by NPR/Ipsos found that over 70% of U.S. respondents believe democracy is "in crisis and at risk of failing."


See also

* ''
After the Empire ''After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order'' (french: Après L'Empire: essai sur la décomposition du système américain) is a 2001 book by French demographer and sociologist Emmanuel Todd. In it, Todd examines the fundamental weaknes ...
'' by Emmanuel Todd *
American Century The American Century is a characterization of the period since the middle of the 20th century as being largely dominated by the United States in political, economic, and cultural terms. It is comparable to the description of the period 1815–19 ...
*
American Empire Project The American Empire Project is a book series that deals with imperialist and exceptionalist tendencies in US foreign policy in the early 21st century. The series is published by Metropolitan Books and includes contributions by such notable American ...
* American imperialism * Decadence * ''
The Decline of the West ''The Decline of the West'' (german: Der Untergang des Abendlandes; more literally, ''The Downfall of the Occident''), is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler. The first volume, subtitled ''Form and Actuality'', was published in the summer of 19 ...
'' by
Oswald Spengler Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (; 29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best known ...
* Dumbing down * ''
Idiocracy ''Idiocracy'' is a 2006 American science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Judge and co-written by Judge and Etan Cohen. Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, and Terry Crews, the film tells the story of Corporal Joe Bauers (Wi ...
'', a 2006 science fiction comedy film * Managed decline * Pax Americana *
Rust Belt The Rust Belt is a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s. The U.S. manufacturing sector as a percentage of the U.S. GDP peaked in 1953 and has been in decline since, impacting certain regions and ...
*
Second American Civil War The "Second American Civil War" is an umbrella term used by academics in order to reclassify historical eras of significant political violence in the history of the United States as a "civil war" or, more commonly, to discuss the potential outbre ...
*
Sick man of Europe "Sick man of Europe" is a label given to a nation which is located in some part of Europe and experiencing a time of economic difficulty or impoverishment. Emperor Nicholas I of the Russian Empire is considered to be the first to use the term " ...
* Societal collapse * State collapse *
Superpower collapse Superpower collapse is the societal collapse of a superpower nation state; the term is most often used to describe the dissolution of the Soviet Union but also can be applied to the loss of the United Kingdom's superpower status through the decl ...
*
Financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
* '' The Decline (EP)'', a 1999 punk rock song


References


Further reading

* {{International power Declinism Economic history of the United States Geopolitics History of the United States Political debates Social philosophy Societal collapse Superpowers