Same here, on both counts. This is a great post, thanks for finding it.
I do think the author glossed a bit quickly past China's hegemonic ambitions, and the real challenge those ambitions will pose for the United States and our traditional Pacific Rim allies throughout the next century. Still, Joffe gives a thoughful analysis of the current state of things.
It was a good read if for nothing else because here we had a European saying out loud that which has been Verbotten for decades to admit: that the U.S. has won with its ideas, that the U.S. has won with its military, that the U.S. has won with its economy...all doing things in its uniquely American way.Lenin and Mao would have had a European or an Asian "silenced" who dared say such truths. For decades we have heard only the opposite, that we Americans we too lazy, or that we worked too hard, or that we were too obsessed with money, or that our economy was doomed, or that our military couldn't compete, etc.
Yet until this author came along just now, all of that other old european nonsense was just cheat beating anti-American propaganda.
But he's said what needed saying, especially to and by the Europeans.
Oh sure, it was obvious all along to most Americans, but if Europeans start hearing this message, then we will see that the cat really is out of the bag, and no one is going to put him back into that bag by silencing that message again.
And so, I pray for a future in which we can finally have honest global politics with fully informed allies and enemies, rather than what we've had to put up with until now.
The anti-American hype was always the Emperor with no Clothes, and now someone has finally laughed and said out loud that the King was naked.
Let's hope that this single article brings about a more clothed and informed and honest Europe and Asia.
The truth, after all, is difficult to hide once it gets out, and this can only benefit us and our cause.