China vs. America - Managing the Next Clash of Civilizations

Foreign Affairs

The United States has spent nearly three decades as the world’s most powerful country. During that time, Washington’s massive influence on world affairs has made it crucial for elites and leaders in other nations to understand American culture and the U.S. approach to strategy. Americans, on the other hand, have often felt that they have the luxury of not needing to think too hard about the worldviews of people elsewhere—a lack of interest encouraged by the belief, held by many American elites, that the rest of the world has been slowly but surely becoming more like the United States anyway.

I never thought of it this way - but, in my travels, I did notice that Americans had little interest in anything outside America. And this struck me as alarming.