[July 15, 2014] “America: Imagine the World Without Her;” a new movie now playing in theaters proposes the idea of a world without the United States and the results. The National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 lists one potential game-changer in the world as the “uncertain role of the United States.” Lack of trust in the government was a series that PBS recently published. Many senior scholars are beginning to label the past few years as “the season of discontent.”
Learning from history is something all leaders should know. Earlier today, I posted a reference to the state of the America in the late 1970s when Jimmy Carter was president (link here). His “Malaise Speech” was classic pessimism; blaming the world’s problems on everyone but himself and other senior leaders. The similarity to the world today is striking in many ways.
Is the world on a different path because the United States has not acted? Is America falling behind in its world commitments? Does America have the respect it once did? These are the questions people are asking and they are not getting good answers. The world believes that while the U.S.A. once was a stabilizing influence for good in the world, not it is an “unknown.” Who will fill the vacuum? Is this the season of discontent?
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