America’s so-called “unipolar moment” quickly passed. Our uncontested preponderance was not an illusion, but neither was it a permanent reality. History has returned, and so geostrategic challenges and macroeconomics have come back to the forefront of policy considerations. Now we purportedly live in a “post-American world” characterized as “nonpolar” or chaotically “apolar.” Others suggest we prepare for a post-American era, one in which American decline, absolute or relative, is both inevitable and irreversible. In the space of five years we have been transformed from “Goliath” to a “Frugal Superpower” by the same author.1
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