US will take back seat in new world order, says think tank
Think tank says America is in transition between interventionist era and a new role, while China's leadership transition will change global politics
A series of political transitions led by the Arab spring uprisings are shifting the balance of world power with the United States set to play a less dominant role, a leading think tank said yesterday.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) warned that the optimism of the 2011 revolutions in the Middle East had been replaced by disillusionment at the pace of reform and fears that Islamist parties may fill the power vacuum.
Presenting its annual report in London, the IISS also noted upcoming elections in the US and leadership upheavals in China, North Korea and Russia as factors changing world politics.
"After a short burst of bewildering change, the year to mid-2012 was one in which people whose interests were threatened tried to apply the brakes," said the report, called "Strategic Survey 2012: The Annual Review of World Affairs".
"This was most obvious in the Arab world after the revolutionary wave of 2011 … But it was also occurring in a Europe struggling to work its own path to the future, in Russia after the re-election of Vladimir Putin, and in China where a leadership change was also under way.
"The United States remained in transition between an interventionist era and a new role, yet to take shape."
The election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi as Egyptian president following the removal of veteran leader Hosni Mubarak demonstrated the skill of the region's Islamist parties in exploiting political insecurity, the report said.