World To America: Who Cares?
Contributors
Parag Khanna 09.26.08, 12:00 AM ET
Whoever is elected president of the U.S. in November will surely proclaim a "new world order" in one form or another in January 2009. But what America wants for the world and what the world wants for itself have diverged in a way no U.S. president can repair.
For the past 20 years, globalization has relentlessly diffused power and technology into the hands of rising powers like China and India, while control over energy resources has propelled Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia into the tier of pivotal states as well. The axiom at play is as familiar to historians, economists, and realists as it is shocking to those who cling to American exceptionalism: The one with the money makes the rules.
Today it is Arab, Russian, and Far Eastern currency reserves and sovereign wealth funds that have all but marginalized the old, American, Cold War order created by the International Money Fund and World Bank. Instead, regional and bilateral preferential trade agreements mean new rules are being built from the ground-up: Gulf Cooperation Council rules for the Gulf, Chinese-Asian rules for the Far East, and Euro-zone standards and regulations attracting an ever-greater following.
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