Power Outage?

If you were to ask random US citizens "is the US a superpower?" a good majority of those responses would probably be "Yes." But is the US really a "superpower" still? Although the US army is still one of the foremost military forces in the world, technologically and in operational scale, it is currently stretched thin fighting unpopular wars to ostensibly liberate oppressed peoples and restore order. We should also take into account that the US seems to have engendered some negative feelings worldwide (at least at the turn of the century). But this does not mean that the United States is in real danger of losing its role as a major power player overnight.

Consider Hockings' stance on social power: The United States, although it has gained a tarnished reputation in many circles worldwide, still has many advantages that grant it a great deal of "potential" power.

For one, the US is definitely has a great deal of "Sticky" power, or economic ties, contracts, and treaties. Even if the Dollar is waning, the US is still one of the largest markets and the largest economies worldwide. There is power in being bound together financially. Fears, for example, that China will usurp and conquer the US (as can be seen in some commercials and occasionally online), are not as dire as they might seem. China, and other major economies, want a healthy US, because that means that the global economy will be healthier too. The US still provides a great deal of foreign aid as well, which means that there is at least a modicum of influence being placed upon the recipients, especially when the US can become a reciprocal trade partner, instead of just a aid source.

The US also transmits a huge quantity of its media internationally, in the form of radio, television, film, and music. Although it is perhaps subtle, having shared media spaces does bring people together in some ways, although it is not a substitute for the particular traditional, historical, or cultural environment of a given state, and it is always up to a given state to enforce and preserve its own cultural identity. Still, it is hard to ignore the popularity of many forms of US media worldwide.

Really, though, the US is far too entrenched in its role as a global power for anyone to acknowledge it as otherwise. The nation's image is more or less set, which is perhaps not very healthy in some cases, like placing military strength ahead of diplomatic or persuasive force.