The Downfall of the Superpower

The Downfall of the Superpower

Last Sunday’s newspaper included three reviews of books on “the state of the union,” one by a Brit, two by Americans, all written by people who love the United States, but all concerned about its decline as the world’s one superpower. It’s often said that the United States has endless capacity to reinvent itself, and (the books and the reviewers argue) it needs to draw on that capacity not merely for its own sake but for the world’s sake, because while the country may be in a dysfunctional state, the current world order is in a more parlous one…