Decline of the American Empire?

The Riz Khan Show takes a look at whether the US can sustain its position as a superpower [EPA]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US joined the elite club of “hyperpowers” with empires such as Imperial Rome and Britain that amassed such extraordinary military and economic might that they essentially dominated the world.
 
On Monday, Anand Naido, who sits in for Riz Khan this week, interviews two scholars who argue that America’s hegemony is not guaranteed.

Parag Khanna is a senior research fellow in the American Strategy Programme of the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

He recently published, The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order, arguing that countries like Turkey, India and Brazil will decide who the world’s superpower will be – the US, EU or China – depending on whom they ally with.
 
And Yale Law Professor Amy Chua, author of Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall, approaches the topic from a domestic point of view.

She argues that hyperpowers are pluralistic and tolerant during their rise to dominance, but that the backlash against this cultural openness and diversity eventually leads to domestic conflict, hatred and violence.

Eventually, the disunity leads to the decline and fall of these empires.

Watch this episode of the Riz Khan show on YouTube

Watch this episode of the Riz Khan Street Talk show on YouTube

This episode of Riz Khan aired on Monday, February 25, 2008

You can watch Riz at 1900GMT, with repeats at 0030GMT, 0500GMT, and 1000GMT.

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