Taming American Power [antikvár]

PREFAC D escribing the United States as the mightiest state since Rome has become a cliché, but like most clichés, it also captures an essential feature of reality. The United States enjoys a position of power unseen for centuries, and citizens around the world are intensely aware of that fact. For Americans, this dominant position is both á source of pride and an opportunity: it gives the United States a large margin of security and some capacity to mold the world according to U.S. interests and values. Within the United States, therefore, the debate about U.S. primacy is mostly about the best way to use its vast power. By contrast, the rest ofthe world sees U.S. primacy as increasingly troubling. Not only is our position a direct threat to states whose interests and values clash with ours, but even our feUow-democracies now worry about the concentration of power in Washington's hands. Over the past several years, they have also become increasingly alarmed by the ways that U.S. leaders have chosen to use that power. While Americans debate how they should use their power, the rest of the world is preoccupied with what it can do to tame American power. Some states want to contain or reduce it, others seek to