The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers

Real Clear Politics ^ | June 25, 2007 | Azar Gat

[gpapa]

Today's global liberal democratic order faces two challenges. The first is radical Islam -- and it is the lesser of the two challenges. Although the proponents of radical Islam find liberal democracy repugnant, and the movement is often described as the new fascist threat, the societies from which it arises are generally poor and stagnant. They represent no viable alternative to modernity and pose no significant military threat to the developed world. It is mainly the potential use of weapons of mass destruction -- particularly by nonstate actors -- that makes militant Islam a menace.

[wildcatf4f3]

very good, but he fails to mention that in WWII, the USA was the world’s largest oil producer.....maybe the deciding factor in that war in retrospect...and compare it to today and our present strategic position...now we are in the position that japan was in circa 1941. We must strike hard, fast and preemptively because we do not have the resources for a long war.

[Paul Ross]

But even if China's superior growth rate persists and its GDP surpasses that of the United States by the 2020s, as is often forecast, China will still have just over one-third of the United States' wealth per capita and, hence, considerably less economic and military power.

Irrelevant. The Chicoms are already focussing their country on war production and dual-use. The U.S. will find it considerably more difficult to switch over, as it is not a command economy...even in war time nowadays. And it is given to the usual hubris of those on top...not really acknowledging the rate of ascension of those hard-charging to catch and surpass us...

The military focus of China will narrow if not eliminate the military gap that is alluded to here. They now make four times as much steel as the U.S. And Clinton and Bush allowed Magnequench to be transferred. LSIC production being transferred. Night Vision combat system production being transferred, and they have 60,000 spies here at anyone time pirating technology, burrowing into corporate heierarchy and leaching the tech... ...all win-lose shifts in production strength that don't show up as significant national security threats in peacetime...to those overconfident in the GDP as a measure of strength.

[Thunder90]

FYI-Russia also has a much larger industrial capacity than the US, and can make high quality weapons at a much lower cost than the US.