AMERICA’S SOFT-POWER POTENTIALS
(…may emerge much sooner than we can imagine…)

Ever since the trauma of 9/11 America has been on a rampage. Much like a wounded lion it has engaged in the hard-power of military supremacy, ferociously mangling anything and everything within the reach of its military claws.

After more than a decade of venting its rage that way, however, it has now fallen back to regroup, and prepare itself for what it may have to do next, withdrawing to leave the entire region of the Middle East in a shambles, leaving it to sort things out for itself, and, obviously, not really caring what the outcome from that will be for those who have to live there.

This is not so much a case of indifference and a return to a more isolationist stance as it is the realization that trying to be an “evangelizing” democracy is really not a very realistic basis for foreign policy, and, more to the point, that it can’t effectively do so, or protect its national interests around the world, by relying primarily on military muscle power.

Among other things, if America is going to have any significant influence and relevance in the international community’s affairs for the rest of this 21^st Century, it must first get its financial and internal house in order. Thus, what kind of leadership it chooses in the upcoming presidential election cycle will be a critical outcome in the eyes of the rest of the world.

If it fails to show that it is focused on stabilizing its financial condition, and restoring a proper internal balance between its component states and the federal apparatus, it might remain as a super-power still based solely upon military muscle rather than anything else, for a while; but, if instead it becomes one of the world’s rare powers to shift the basis of its influence on being – pares inter pares -…the first among equals…rather than acting like eight hundred pound imperial gorilla on the loose…its influence will become much more effective and powerful.

A key factor in accelerating such a soft-power development appears to be coming from its growing energy independence, giving it a new capacity to become a leading, if not the leading source of oil and gas supplier to a very wide range of recipients. It’s that growing capacity to export those energy resources which will be the foundation of America’s rising soft-power potentials for the rest of this century. How well and how rapidly it establishes the necessary infrastructures and guidelines for that will determine if it achieves that position in the world.

In short, if it can make itself an economically stronger, politically stable, and continue to be a technologically leading nation, America’s influence in the international arena will make it the preferred and ultimate arbiter in its affairs as, perhaps, the only “honest broker” remaining in the world. A role which will then make it an even more appealing model for others to emulate.

Nevertheless, all of America’s soft-power potentials may emerge sooner than we think if…but that’s a big if…because that depends upon whether or not its people have both the smarts, and the will, to ignore the usual blandishments of its two political parties in these upcoming elections, and avoid voting solely on the basis of the “celebrity appeal” candidates from well-known political family dynasties, and opt instead for new, relatively unknown candidates who demonstrate some serious no-nonsense forward thinking along the above lines.

Well, all of that may be an impossible dream, which some might even believe is a delusion brought on by over-indulgence in some of that –weed- substance…but… it is the right kind of impossible dream to have, so it’s just a question of whether the American people can make it a reality…or not..

CENTURION