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Fighting Decline
The third of Dyer’s bestselling series on the new world order.
Gwynne Dyer’s provocative argument in Fighting Decline is that, since 2001, American foreign and defence policies have been run by people whose entire approach is shaped by an idea of the United States now being the world’s sole superpower. The invasion of Iraq, Dyer argues, was as much a warning shot across the bows of potential rivals as it was a mission to oust Saddam Hussein.
But while the United States has been pouring countless billions into its war on Iraq and its subsequent attempt to impose democracy on a deeply divided nation, two Asian countries have quietly been developing enormous economic power. India and China are now both on the brink of rivalling American economic clout and political influence. It remains to be seen just how the United States will respond to this competition, but history, as Dyer shows, provides us with vivid lessons of how empires act when in decline. No paramount power, however skilled, has yet succeeded in stopping the process by which new powers grow to overshadow them, but they do seem condemned to try. Fighting Decline brings insight, intelligence, and Dyer’s trademark humour to bear on this, one of the biggest issues facing the world.
Gwynne Dyer’s provocative argument in Fighting Decline is that, since 2001, American foreign and defence policies have been run by people whose entire approach is shaped by an idea of the United States now being the world’s sole superpower. The invasion of Iraq, Dyer argues, was as much a warning shot across the bows of potential rivals as it was a mission to oust Saddam Hussein.
But while the United States has been pouring countless billions into its war on Iraq and its subsequent attempt to impose democracy on a deeply divided nation, two Asian countries have quietly been developing enormous economic power. India and China are now both on the brink of rivalling American economic clout and political influence. It remains to be seen just how the United States will respond to this competition, but history, as Dyer shows, provides us with vivid lessons of how empires act when in decline. No paramount power, however skilled, has yet succeeded in stopping the process by which new powers grow to overshadow them, but they do seem condemned to try. Fighting Decline brings insight, intelligence, and Dyer’s trademark humour to bear on this, one of the biggest issues facing the world.
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 3, 2007
17 people want to read
About the author
Gwynne Dyer
34 books111 followersGwynne Dyer, OC is a London-based independent Canadian journalist, syndicated columnist and military historian.
Dyer was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (then the Dominion of Newfoundland) and joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve at the age of sixteen. While still in the naval reserve, he obtained a BA in history from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1963; an MA in military history from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1966; and a PhD in military and Middle Eastern history at King's College London in 1973. Dyer served in the Canadian, American and British naval reserves. He was employed as a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, 1973–77. In 1973 he began writing articles for leading London newspapers on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and soon decided to abandon academic life for a full-time career in journalism. In 2010, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Dyer was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (then the Dominion of Newfoundland) and joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve at the age of sixteen. While still in the naval reserve, he obtained a BA in history from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1963; an MA in military history from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1966; and a PhD in military and Middle Eastern history at King's College London in 1973. Dyer served in the Canadian, American and British naval reserves. He was employed as a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, 1973–77. In 1973 he began writing articles for leading London newspapers on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and soon decided to abandon academic life for a full-time career in journalism. In 2010, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
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