starcraft said:
Oh I don't know. There was certainly something to be said for some periods of time during the cold war where dual super-powers together generated stability throughout much of the world. China ceasing to exist WOULD be catastrophic economically, but not nearly as much as if the USA did. The USA is the world's source of income. It would still desire goods if China disappeared (in the medium-long term at least, in the short-term it would be cataclysm everywhere), and other countries seeing that income would quickly begin to produce them. As an aside, can anyone point to significant instances recently where the EU has proven capable of uniting and throwing ANY real economic or military weight around? |
I would argue that two super-powers was inherently unstable. You ended up very near nuclear oblivion at least twice in the Cold War, the world was unstable - it was pure luck that the instability didn't lead to disaster.
Also for the EU thing, the Euro had massive economic effects for the world. I agree however that the EU is not a military super-power. Not really the aim of the thing though.
Also notice that I didn't mention the EU in my posts, I mentioned Europe as a whole. Even if not entirely united they are still economic (and sometimes military) forces in the world and for the most part they fall into the general category of 'the West' which in my opinion is essentially made up of America north of Mexico, Europe west of the old iron curtain, Australia and New Zealand.
