Is the United States in decline?

The Wall Street Journal online (can you tell it’s my favorite source of information?) had an article that was refreshing. We hear of America’s decline all the time. But this article showed the nonsense of that outlook. Much has been made of certain recent events that have led to this negative view of the United States. Countries like China, India, Turkey and Brazil seem to be more powerful and important when it comes to economic matters. Then there is the financial crisis that appears to have sapped the strength of the U. S. and Europe. Add to this the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which many claim have sapped American strength and destroyed America's ability to act in the Middle East. The Journal article refutes this. The United States isn't in decline, but the author says it is in the midst of a major rebalancing. The alliances and coalitions America built in the Cold War no longer seem adequate for the tasks ahead. As a result, under both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, American foreign policy has been moving toward the creation of new, sometimes difficult partnerships as it retools for the tasks ahead. First, the piece states we need to give some history From the 1970s to the start of this decade, the world was headed by three players-- Western Europe, Japan and the U.S. Currency policy, the promotion of free trade, integrating the developing world into the global financial system, assisting the transition of Warsaw Pact economies into the Western World all were results of these three partners in power. This system worked particularly well for America. Europe and Japan shared a basic commitment to the type of world order that Americans wanted, and so a more cooperative approach to key policy questions enlisted the support of rich and powerful allies for efforts that tallied pretty closely with key long-term American goals. The Journal claims it is this three-way system that is in decline, not America itself. I need to spend more time on this, so I’ll save more blogs for this important issue.