Good Bye, America?

The world has started dreaming of a strange but exciting future, the future where America is no longer a leader. Most of us may call this a pipe-dream. Some of us have already predicted the contours of this brave new world. The succession planning is already underway and the likely candidates are China and India. There are other emerging players also in this 'leadership pipeline'.


The US has dominated our imagination in almost every walk of life since the World War II. Its rising power, prowess and influence continued to awe us. We looked to US for almost everything a developing nation is normally concerned with: education, military technology, nuclear power, industrialisation, administrative efficiency, electronics and computing, economic aid, space science and the like. Our IITs and IIMs are modelled upon the US institutions of excellence like MIT and Harvard Business School. Our research institutions and industries have profited from their association with the US technology and knowhow. We have toyed with an idea of adopting US-style presidential model of political executive many a time. We are fascinated by the success of private initiative and entrepreneurship in the US. And Indian parents are still anxious to send their children to American universities for higher education. The US consulate in Mumbai issues about 1,80,000 nonimmigrant visas every year.

Why then do we all dislike America to some extent? Do we envy them or are we sure of never scaling the dizzy heights this country has achieved? Is America invincible? Does this notion of invincibility put us off? Is this how we start grudging against every point the country scores? Does it make us realize how slothful and contented we have been all these years?

The degree of US-bashing varies from country to country and it is really an interesting idea to think up an index to measure a country's anti-US sentiments at regular intervals. Notwithstanding our general stance of skepticism towards US policies and accomplishments, we know deep down that this nation can show the way. And every developing nation ends up emulating the US and nurses a hope to achieve parity with this global superpower inspite of what the noisy nationalistic rhetoric says back home. Here are the leaves a country like India can take out of the US book:

(1) Though our constitution does draw upon the US one to some extent, there is a need to borrow more from this exceptional document of democratic spirit and social justice. The US Constitution is relatively simple but rigid and has been successful in holding the nation together. Also, it is harder to run a Constitution than to frame one (Woodrow Wilson). The US has toiled enormously to raise administrative effectiveness to a level needed to achieve the lofty goals of the Constitution. India has been content with inventing 'All India Services' only. No other significant innovation has been tried in the area of public administration since independence.

(2) Even in the late '90s the US had an inkling of what Osama Bin Laden was upto. (The world hardly knew how to spell his name). And post 9/11, the US government has put terrorism on the global political and security agenda with the kind of fervour the world has never witnessed in the recent political history. Every government and national leader began talking terrorism. That's how you get 66.1 million entries of 'terrorism' on the Google. Pursue the goal and have a heart for any fate. Work hard and wait. That's the message the US sends out. The country stands for unrelenting pursuit of objectives you believe in and convinced about.

(3) Don't dump science, technology and innovation, no matter how high you have started ranking yourself in the global order. The US universities are the greatest tribute to the spirit of scientific enquiry and knowledge. India cannot afford to remain smug in this critical area. IT is just the first chapter of the 'superpower in the making' story of India. Just think how poor we are at research in defence, industrial automation and engineering, pharmaceuticals, medicine, environmental protection, clean energy solutions and numerous other fields of basic science and technology. We have found an easy way out. Build as many IITs as possible and the picture will improve dramatically.

We may secretly smile at the waning global influence of this so called hegemonistic world power but we all would do well to remember what America stands for. It may have devastated Iraq but look at how it is toiling to bring Rwanda back to health after being ravaged by one of the most horrific ethnic carnages of the last century.

We will look over the downside of Uncle Sam in the next post.