After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made

by Ben Rhodes

For most of the last few hundred years, the center of geopolitical gravity was in Europe: home to the Enlightenment, the emergence of nation-states, the rise of empires, the catastrophe of world wars, the Cold War competition between the American and Russian superpowers. China was on the periphery of this world: a great civilization turned into a divided and partially colonized country, a Japanese-conquered member of the World War II allies, an impoverished Communist regime that helped determine the outcome of the Cold War by shifting its weight slightly away from the Soviet Union and toward the United States. In the span of just thirty years, the center of gravity has shifted. Today, Viktor Orban’s Hungary represents the emerging brand of nationalist authoritarianism that has infected the West in the wake of globalization’s failures. Vladimir Putin’s Russia represents the disruption of the post–World War II global order of international laws, norms, and institutions through a return to an old and aggressive definition of national security and sovereignty. Xi Jinping’s China represents the emerging model of capitalism blended with techno-totalitarianism that could be our future, as it is taking hold on nearly every continent. Far from the periphery, Beijing could become the new center of global events.