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

by Ben Rhodes

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. The United States made this possible. Since the end of the Cold War, we have developed a symbiotic relationship with the Chinese. Our businesses eagerly decamped to China to make cheap goods that they could then sell back to Americans hungry for ever-improving standards of living; it’s almost impossible to imagine an American household that doesn’t have something in it that was made in China, even as much of the wealth created through this process was accumulated by the very few Americans who sat at the top of our own economic pyramid, the people who ran companies, traded stocks, held portfolios, and repeatedly had their taxes cut.