Objective for Obama in the post-America future

Sir, Gideon Rachman’s insightful book reviews (“No, we can’t”, Life & Arts, December 4) all point in the same direction: we are in a post-America future!

This is not to argue that the US would be completely eclipsed by “The Rest” – China, India, Russia – but only that, despite its uniquely global military and economic reach, it will no longer be calling the shots by itself.

There are two trajectories in which this systemic development could be expressed: one reflects a sobering comment made by the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung at the London School of Economics some 30 years ago, that “nothing is more frightening than a giant in decline”, a diminished superpower endeavouring to stave off further decline by entering into dangerous geopolitical enterprises.

The other trajectory is a “power and sovereignty-sharing” arrangement with The Rest, perhaps through the Group of 20, where the US and other state and organisational actors work together in solving complex global problems that bedevil the efforts of any one of them to attempt to solve alone (for example global warming, poverty, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, population growth, environmental degradation, economic and financial shocks, pandemics, state failure, terrorism).

The second option should be Barack Obama’s primary objective, whether he is a one- or two-term president!

Dennis J.D. Sandole,

Professor of Conflict Resolution and International Relations,

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution,

George Mason University,

Arlington, VA, US