Superpower
They say the most popular sport in the world is soccer. But there’s only one country in the world where people actually believe that - and they don’t even play it! The rest of us know that the world’s most popular past time is badmouthing the United States.
Whether it’s in a classroom, a bar, around the dinner table or on somebody’s national television service, someone’s having a go at the US right now. And why not? With so much control and influence centralized in one country one can always think of something that they ought to be doing, or some other thing that they ought to be doing. The answer most people give to how the world should respond to a given issue usually starts with “the US needs to…”
But will this continue? It’s often noted that China and India will be superpowers in the future, and that’s probably true, but there’s another faction worth considering that’s already fully developed.
With the coalescence of European states under the EU there is now a political entity emerging with a lot of power. The EU has a larger population and a larger economy than the US. When (I’m not saying if) the Lisbon Treaty passes into law the EU will be closer to a federated state and a federation of states than it ever has been before. With talk of a European foreign minister and even a united European defense force I wonder if eyes will begin to on Europe as a source of leadership, and if people will begin to ask what Europe ought to be doing.
