The changing of the times: End of American suburbia and the (literal) "rise of the rest"

Two books seem to foreshadow the coming world order. A world order that will, ultimately, make us rethink our evaluations of what the Cold War went. The two books of which I speak are The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria and Second World by Parag Khanna. Admittedly, I've read neither of these books and so I can't quote them directly. That does not, however, preclude me from getting the proverbial gist of what these two are getting at. Moreover, I have read Khanna's article from New York Times Magazine entitled "Waving Goodbye to Hegemony." (Thanks to a wonderful tip from Cody Nixon, full text available here...http://www.paragkhanna.com/2008/01/waving_goodbye_to_hegemony.html) The nationality of these two authors is, in and of itself, portentuous of the shift that is already well under way. Both Zakaria and Khanna are Indian-born, American-educated scholars. Zakaria, in particular, is a "rising star" (if such terminology can ever be applied to one in such an obscure field as foreign policy) and is the editor of Newsweek and was recently "awarded" a slot on CNN on Sunday afternoons. India, like these two policy wonks that it gave birth to, figures prominently into the future of the global order.

I've just finished reading two articles in the New York Times; one about the end of the mass-migration to American suburbia (possibly foreshadowing a new mass-migration back into the cities), the other about the drastic increase in the number of "supertalls" around the world (supertalls being any building over 1,000 feet in height). The first article gives creedence to the worries about the future of the American economy. Those fears are created, sustained, and (as it now appears) propelled by the rise in oil prices and the decline in the dollar. Should it come as a surprise that the dollar is losing value? Following World War II, the British lost their long-held position as the financial capital of the world--a fact that served as an omen for the end of the British empire (which arguably and ironically, began with the independence of India in 1948). And, so, once again it seems that the decline of the global trading standard, the U.S. Dollar, foreshadows "the rise of the rest" as Zakaria puts it.

This point of the decline of the dollar is a convenient segway to the issue of the supertalls. Supertalls, seemingly occupy a role of oppulent symbolism, but that symbollism is, nonetheless, grounded in empirical facts--in this case those facts are economic preponderance. America really was the trend setter in this regard with the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City (a city that was, until recently, Britain's heir to the throne of "financial capital of the world"). Other supertalls followed, most notably the Sears Tower and the World Trade Center. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11th, plan were hatched to create, on that hallowed ground, "The Freedom Tower." One would (or at least should) assume that America would respond to those attacks and that destruction with the creation of the world's largest building, to serve as both a retort to those who attacked as well as a signifier of America's role in the world. That is, however, not the case. From the outset, the plans for The Freedom Tower were outdone...and outdone in what twenty years ago would have been the most illogical locations: Dubai, Taiwan, and (possibly) Saudi Arabia. The Burj Dubai, upon its completion later this year, will stand as the tallest building in the world; towering at 2,600 feet compared to that of 1,776 (an attempt to draw on historical symbolism, but it falls short of intended effect) for the Freedom Tower. Not to mention the fact that it WILL BE DONE THIS YEAR! Freedom Tower, at least when I was in New York a month ago, is not projected to be completed until late 2011 or early 2012.

The Cold War as I said will soon look like that all-coveted Christmas Gift (a Red Rider B.B. Gun of sorts). Because there was only one potential adversary for the United States: The Soviet Union. Khanna asserts that there will soon be (once again) a multipolar world; the three poles being the U.S., a United Europe (or a semi-united or even "international state of" Europe), and China. However, the "rest" (Zakaria's term) or the "second world" (again Khanna's term) will figure prominently into the global power dynamic. The reason that the rest will figure so prominently is because they know that they can exercise independence, they can play the waiting game to see which camp is most attractive. Most important among the second world are India and Russia. Both of whom (and Russia especially) seem to be suffering from a sort of schizophrenia on which camp they will fall into. Russia's new-found capitalism seem to draw it into American or (more logically) European alliances, but its even more novel characteristic of entrenched authoritarianism also could lead one to speculate that a Sino-Russian relationship makes perfect sense. India suffers not from a schizophrenia, but from indecisiveness as a result of recent developments. India, as the world's largest democracy with a demonstrated respect for human rights (although certainly not in all aspects) would seem to fit perfectly into an alliance with America (an inkling of which can be seen in the nuclear sharing agreement we recently made with them) or with Europe (who Khanna asserts have usurped the role of "the defenders of democracy and human rights" from America). At the same time, however, India has recently received support from China for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council; something that no one else on the council (except the US somewhat intermittently) has wanted to support.

The bottom line is this: the "American way of life" is permanently altered. Oil prices are not going back down (in fact, $7-8/gallon does not seem far off as third world demand grows) and the dominance of America in virtually all aspects of the global economy is over (look at the impact of sovereign wealth funds, look at who is bailing out some of these failing lenders, etc.). The American way of life, however, is not dead. What it requires is what it should have always been, cooperation with "the rest." Above all, an abandonment of unilaterlism. We had two chances to reshape the global order to our ideal, we blew both. Now we have to make the best of the situation that we possibly can.