In a Time Of Crisis Who Do You Call?

TW: For now it is still the U.S. and it may stay that way for a while yet. One of the somewhat counter-intuitive results of the current worldwide economic crisis is that American power may be enhanced at least temporarily. The key is that everything is relative, while we are clearly is some deep doodoo, our situation may be relatively better than others. Ultimately crises end up as leadership tests, we are banking heavily on a vast incremental improvement from W. Bush to Obama. We shall see, but I like the odds.

From Tom Barnett:
"Wise men tell Americans that our nation no longer leads this world: We bankrupted ourselves first ideologically through unilateralism, then militarily through "global war," and now financially through the debt crisis. Rising great powers, we are told, now lead the way.

But where do we locate this new leadership? In Europe's self-absorption over its rising Muslim quotient? In Russia's self-inflicted economic penance for its smack down of Georgia? In India's crippling obsession with Pakistan? In China's super-cooling economy and the social unrest it'll trigger? In Japan's ... whatever Japan is doing nowadays?

So which foreign leader has captured the world's attention with his promise of changed leadership? Ah, that would be Barack Obama, president-elect of that has-been superpower.
Amidst the most destabilizing global economic crisis since the Great Depression, no great power has stuck its neck out to claim new authority in the international system. Instead, our presidential interregnum has triggered an odd calm, with even last month's global economic summit effectively postponed until Obama's inauguration.

I'm not suggesting we haven't reached the end of an era, because we have, just that the new boss is going to look an awfully lot like the old boss...

The solution is two-fold: (1) sufficiently unwind America's military interventions so as to free up its hard-power resources for leadership likewise needed elsewhere; and (2) enlist the military cooperation of those rising great powers in globalization's defense. That means our future president had better be able to build a "team of rivals" not merely in his cabinet but likewise in this global economy of our creation..."
http://www.newschief.com/article/20081213/NEWS/812130308/1013/OPINION?Title=The_world_still_needs_America_to_lead