Is there life after being a superpower?

The future of the United States seems bleak. The optimism for which Americans are known comes less readily. The prevalence of pessimism today is spread by the realisation that the country's position of global superpower may soon be lost.

This moment may represent a major psychological shift in the way that Americans relate to the rest of the world.

The sheer size of America's military and economy, its commercial and technological success, and the global penetration of its culture have underwritten a high standard of living and influence over others. Earlier, its reputation as a dynamic, free, prosperous nation allowed some people to champion a special destiny for the proverbial people of plenty.

Anyone who seeks to understand this history must start with the centrality of dichotomies in American life. It is still common to speak of "America and the world" as though the two exist separately. This can be traced back to the first such dichotomy: the new world and the old. Related to it was one between civilisation and barbarism. As Jay Sexton has shown in his recent history of the Monroe Doctrine, it did not take long for the two to merge. No longer was the US merely a symbol of hope for those who endure oppression and poverty. It also had, collectively, a civilising mission of its own.

So the US became a much bigger global player but Americans have held on to a basic dichotomy which at once justifies their success and divides them from the less fortunate.

Meanwhile, the loss of US hegemony has come to be seen as leading away from gentility and progress. It is not merely a result of a smaller pie; it's due to a combination of socio-economic and demographic disparities with rapid political and economic change at home and abroad.