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Full Description
Is the West in Decline? is a collection of ten essays by prominent scholars of international relations and current history, many of them associated with the European Studies program of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The essays explore the question of decline from several perspectives: theoretical, historical, counterfactual, and contemporary. Thomas Row's essay uses alternative history to show how an unfallen Habsburg Empire might have evolved into a state system resembling the European Union. Benjamin Rowland's essay on Oswald Spengler considers how the German historian's theory of decline could be applied to the West today. Several of the essays are country studies. Not all conclude that countries or state systems are in decline, or that the condition, if present, is irreversible. Writing about Germany, Stephen Szabo notes that only fifteen years ago, this currently robust country could have been seen as a clear exemplar of decline. Dana Allin's essay on the U.S. asks whether a course change, including retrenchment and overseas rebalancing, might reverse decline or eliminate it altogether. David Calleo's essay, among other things, looks at America's reserve currency status as a principal sustainer of American exceptionalism, and asks what might happen should the U.S. lose its "exorbitant privilege" as reserve currency provider to the international system.
Contents
Introduction: Decline: American Style, David Calleo
Part I: Systems in Decline
Chapter 1: Spengler's Decline of the West Revisited, Benjamin Rowland
Chapter 2: Hegemonic Decline, Emerging Great Powers, and Global Conflict: Some Considerations on the Rise of Germany and Rise of China, Aaron Zack
Chapter 3: Decline and the Rise of China: A New Perspective, Lanxin Xiang
Chapter 4: Habsburg Decline Revisited: The Virtues of Cosmopolitan Empire, Thomas Row
Chapter 5: Europe After the Crisis: A Case of Temporary or Morbid Decline?, Gabriel Goodliffe
Part II: National Studies of Decline
Chapter 6: Obama's America and the Question of Decline, Dana Allin
Chapter 7: Germany: Resurgence, Stagnation, or Decline?, Stephen Szabo
Chapter 8: Italy's Decline: A Case Study in Political Mismanagement, Mark Gilbert
Chapter 9: Russia as a Great Power: Revival, Stagnation, and Decline, Hannes Odemeit
Chapter 10: France: Another Sick Man in Europe?, Benoit d'Aboville
