At 02:08 13/10/97 +0100, Richard K. Moore wrote:
>
>10/11/97, Adam K. Webb wrote:
>> My question to you, in light of this: _if_ Chinese
>>development continues (a very big if), is it not most plausible that China
>>can assume the role of global bully relatively smoothly, much as the
>>transfer from Britain to the USA occurred in the 1940s?
>
>I can't imagine such a scenario. Can you? Britain simply didn't keep up
>its military dominance - it was eclipsed by at least the US, Japan, and
>Germany. The US is taking care not to lose its dominance - is in fact
>bleeding its population dry to maintain hegemony.
And it took two goes and decimation of a generation for Britain to
get to the point that it was willing to hand over the role of global bully.
In other words, as long as we are drawing loose historical analogies, if
the US / China relationship is pictured as similar to turn of century Great
Britain / US, why is this picture more compelling than the picture of
Great Britain / Napeolonic France. Hey, for the latter case, both
Napoleonic France and China have more or less had a revo and a terror
or two.
Virtually,
Bruce McFarling, Newcastle, NSW
ecbm@cc.newcastle.edu.au