Quote Originally Posted by KingJaja View Post
TheCurmudgeon,



That is true, but the fact is that the most dynamic economic player in the poorest and most troubled regions of the World (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) is not the US, it is China.

In a perfect World, US and China will enter a partnership - US does what it can on security (the minor part) and China does the heavy lifting (trade & infrastructure).
That is the Thomas Barnett model and I'm as skeptical of that model as I am of his Core-Gap model:

http://pundita.blogspot.com/2008/04/...l-see-you.html

In a way, isn't that the model today? China builds its export driven economic model while the US provides security and gains debt and loses market share? It hasn't worked out so well for the US (largely because of our sillier than silly elites that can't think their way out of a paper bag, IMO). Two nations that want to be the top dog are going to have trouble with that model until the whole top dog thing is sorted out. The British-American Atlantic alliance model with China?

The US doesn't need it, we are huge with two great oceans on either side and relationships with lots of different nations. We can hang out and do our own thing and be involved only as much as it suits us, the China model for the US.

That model will bankrupt the US. Heck, even the Chinese model may eventually slow down for internal reasons and as others get in on the Africa game and learn from the Chinese.

Sorry, don't see it except in a de facto way which doesn't require any kind of grand partnership. As part of larger international governing treaties and alliances and networks (UN), sure.