The American century is the term that has come to describe the dominance of the US of the 20th century. Central to America’s status has been its military prowess. America’s entry into WW2 won the war, the massive military build up pulled the US out of the great depression. When the US dropped the world’s first nuclear bombs upon Japan, this confirmed America’s edge over every other power. US prowess led it to develop missiles that carried heavier loads and travelled further than the Soviet Unions. It was such developments that led to the US to out do the Soviet Union in space. US military development has led to technologies that many take for granted, but have become key to 21st century lifestyles. The internet, barcodes, marker pen, hard disk drive, wireless microphone, integrated circuit, magnetic strip, cordless phone, computer CD, global positioning system and email are just some US military inventions that have ended up changing society. This is why the US naturally entered the 21st century as the world’s unrivalled power.

Today much of the Pentagon budget is based on wish lists that were conceived during the Cold War. The US military failed to notice that the Soviet Union had collapsed and no great-power rival was around to get into any fights with the US military.

However Iraq and Afghanistan have undermined the key to US power, it’s military.

Does this signal the decline of the US as the world’s superpower?

America’s control of the international situation since WW2 has been built upon her military strength. Today the US does not enjoy the same primacy as it did prior to its invasion of Iraq. Iraq and Afghanistan have impacted US power and depleted her resources. The global economic crisis further exacerbated America’s standing in the world, as it turned towards Socialist intervention to prop up its economy. Because of such challenges America’s presence in the world is being considered as overstretched and untenable.

As a result of America’s apparent weakness, the challenges stemming from her competitors have grown in size and scope and today are much stronger. Whilst the US is faltering and despite all the setbacks it has faced the US still remains the world’s dominant power, sets the worlds agenda and controls the global balance of power.

Whilst US military dominance has been undermined the US spends more on defence research and development then the rest of the world combined. So whilst the US faces larger, deeper and broader challenges it still has an immense scientific and technological edge over the rest of the world. It is unlikely the US will disintegrate like the Soviet Union or cease to be the worlds power as is what happened to Britain, because the US still maintains its economic hegemony through the Dollar and its industrial advantage.

The US can only really be deposed through the rise of another power.

China has a military industry in better shape than Russia, but it lacks the global ambition necessary to remove the US as the world’s superpower. Its economic development is fragile and its territorial cohesion can be easily manipulated by the US, if the US deemed it necessary. China is every day becoming more and more like Japan and becoming an economic power, however an economy without political aims and global ambitions will turn a nation into a trade powerhouse never a global power.

Russia on the other hand has managed to take advantage of America’s weakness and strengthen itself in the former Soviet republics. However Russia is still very far from the necessary economy and industrial base needed to pose a direct challenge to the US. For these reasons the US will remain the world’s superpower for the foreseeable future even though it is faltering, because none of the powers who realistically can challenge the US – China and Russia, pose a challenge sufficient enough to topple the US - for the moment Global ambitions intertwined with the appropriate economy and industry is central to competing with the worlds powers. Japan and Germany had global ambitions which came from the belief that they were superior people to the rest of the world; this drove the need to develop and motivated their people to contribute towards the aims of global domination. It took WW2 to stop both nations. Japanese development in the 1970's and 1980's was economic and not political and hence it remained within Japan's borders. Both Japan and Germany have always lacked mineral resources in order to develop but their global ambitions drove them to develop strategies to overcome such obstacles.

In a similar manner Britain and the America on the eve of their development had small populations and lacked the technology to compete with their competitors. Britain's global ambitions of colonising the world, to benefit from their mineral resources, drove them to develop a state of the art navy and turned them into the world's superpower by the turn of the 18th century. American development began through the American Revolution where Britain was expelled as the American people wanted to embrace the unalienable rights of freedom. The belief in ‘manifest destiny' this is the divine belief that the original United States was ordained to conquer the North American continent motivated Americans to work for the territorial expansion Westward. In the case of Britain and America all challenges were mere obstacles that stood in the way of global aims and just needed to be removed (solved). The adoption of Capitalism unified their societies and motivated them to work towards developing the nation and in turn fulfilling their global ambitions.

Today Germany and Japan have strong economies but the lack the political will to change the global balance of power. Britain has the political will and ambition, but this has not translated into an industry and economy that would aid such ambitions. India is still to overcome its domestic challenges and it’s very unlikely it will ever have global aims. Turkey has reduced its role to within the context of the international system and the designs the US has on the world. Whilst this will keep Turkey relevant as it will protect US interests such a strategy secures the position of the world’s power rather than alter it.

Whilst the US potentially faces challenges from two challengers, China and Russia, US national intelligence estimates have continued to reiterate the demand for Islam by the Islamic Ummah around the world as a threat. Without a state the Ummah will be unable to become the leading nation and challenge the US. The threat posed by the potential Khilafah was continually reiterated by the Bush administration, it was one of the reasons for both the Iraq and Afghan wars. The retired UK armed forces chief and advisor to the UK Prime Minister, General Richard Dannatt confessed in an interview to the BBC Radio 4 that the objective behind the war in Afghanistan is; "there is an Islamist agenda which if we don't oppose it and face it off in Southern Afghanistan, or Afghanistan, or in South Asia, then frankly that influence will grow. It could well grow, and this is an important point, we could see it moving from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa, and to the high water mark of the Islamic caliphate in the 14th, 15th century."31

Americas prowess has been undermined, the financial crisis has shown the US economy, the worlds largest is built upon a pack of cards, however there is no nation in the world who currently can expose such a reality and hence US dominance will continue. Those who can pose a challenge to the US either lack the political will or have not reached the level of development where they can sustain open and direct competition with the US. Therefore whilst the US maybe faltering, due to the absence of a credible alternative power, it is unlikely to be removed - for the moment as the worlds superpower.