Donald Trump will cause US power to collapse, says man who correctly predicted fall of USSR

[johen]

Election of Republican 'speeds up decline' of America, claims Nobel Prize-nominated professor

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7460516.html

A sociologist credited with predicting the fall of the Soviet Union has warned that US global power is in a phase of accelerated decline under the leadership of Donald Trump — and will collapse while the property mogul is the White House.

Norwegian professor Johan Galtung is known as the "founding father" of peace studies as a scientific subject and is recognised for correctly predicting numerous historical events, among them the Tiananmen Square uprising in China and the September 11 attacks.

He attracted controversy in 2000 when he predicted US global power would collapse by 2025.
But under the Bush administration he revised his forecast for the collapse to 2020. Now, he says that reality that is materialising following election of the bombastic billionaire.

Mr Trump’s election on an anti-immigrant platform coincides with one of the final phases of the decline predicted in the social scientist’s 2009 book The Fall of the American Empire—and then What? where he forecast the rise of facism before the country's power receded.

The President-elect has vowed to deport three million illegal immigrants as soon as he enters office and build a wall along the American border with Mexico.

He told Motherboard the election of Mr Trump "speeds up the decline", although he qualified the statement, saying: "Of course, what he does as a President remains to be seen."
Dr Galtung added that the President-elect's critical attitude to Nato also indicated the US would cease to be a superpower.

The Republican has previously indicated the US might not come to the aid of those in the alliance if they failed to meet the designated defence spending.

“The collapse has two faces,” Dr Galtung told the tech news site, “Other countries refuse to be good allies and the USA has to do the killing themselves, by bombing from high altitudes, drones steered by computer from an office, special forces killing all over the place.

"Both are happening today, except for Northern Europe, which supports these wars, for now. That will probably not continue beyond 2020, so I stand by that deadline.”

Yet Xenia Wickett, head of the US and Americas programme at think-tank Chatham House told The Independent it was "totally unrealistic" to believe the US would stop being a global power by 2020.

"The US is a global power for many reasons. It has the strongest military in the world, it has the most robust soft power in terms of its universities, [...] in terms of its companies and in terms of the reach of its media. It also remains the biggest economy in the world. The idea that any of these things are going to change in the next four years is unrealistic."

what do you think?

[Drawing-slim]

He has a point. If americans who voted for trump keep isloteing america and if trump keeps threating giant american companies US power and influence can decline withing 4 years in totality.

[Herr Abubu]

Trump isn't going to change much about the foreign policy of the country. He wants peace with Russia and war with Iran. That just doesn't compute. I'm really looking forward to the fall of America.

[zhaoyun]

I'd like to see his statistics and proof, otherwise, just sensationalistic hogwash.

[Herr Abubu]

"The US is a global power for many reasons. It has the strongest military in the world, it has the most robust soft power in terms of its universities, [...] in terms of its companies and in terms of the reach of its media. It also remains the biggest economy in the world. The idea that any of these things are going to change in the next four years is unrealistic."

It's refreshing to see someone I guess is relatively mainstream admit that these are in fact tools of power and shouldn't be seen as anything else.

[Norse]

Soft Trumpian fascism sure, already happens with Trump directly intervening in business like with Carrier and Boeing.

American global power will recede, but white power will grow due to alliance and cooperation with Russia. This will be key to limiting China.

[zhaoyun]

"The US is a global power for many reasons. It has the strongest military in the world, it has the most robust soft power in terms of its universities, [...] in terms of its companies and in terms of the reach of its media. It also remains the biggest economy in the world. The idea that any of these things are going to change in the next four years is unrealistic."

It's refreshing to see someone I guess is relatively mainstream admit that these are in fact tools of power and shouldn't be seen as anything else.

Of course they are tools of power, it's called soft power.

The US isn't collapsing anytime soon, that's ridiculous. Actually, if Trump stops us from wasting our resources in wars, and instead uses that money to rebuild our infrastructure and economy at home, we might see a much more powerful US in a decade from now.

[Herr Abubu]

Of course they are tools of power, it's called soft power.

Thanks for telling me, I wouldn't have known weren't it for you! Now I wonder what's so soft about subverting a very large chunk of the world. Hm.

The US isn't collapsing anytime soon, that's ridiculous. Actually, if Trump stops us from wasting our resources in wars, and instead uses that money to rebuild our infrastructure and economy at home, we might see a much more powerful US in a decade from now.

No, it isn't ridiculous. America relies on its military to keep its global system afloat, and it's getting harder and harder to keep it afloat due to dozens of problems. If America starts backing off from the world, which Trump is of course not going to do, look at his appointments, America falls apart much, much quicker.

Soft Trumpian fascism sure, already happens with Trump directly intervening in business like with Carrier and Boeing.

American global power will recede, but white power will grow due to alliance and cooperation with Russia. This will be key to limiting China.

Russia is in fact co-operating with China.

[BeerBaron]

ive read galtung

he fails to mention under fascism they tend to get stronger before they weaken, it'll depend how he alienates countries towards china

[zhaoyun]

Thanks for telling me, I wouldn't have known weren't it for you! Now I wonder what's so soft about subverting a very large chunk of the world. Hm.



No, it isn't ridiculous. America relies on its military to keep its global system afloat, and it's getting harder and harder to keep it afloat due to dozens of problems. If America starts backing off from the world, which Trump is of course not going to do, look at his appointments, America falls apart much, much quicker.

.

No, our global wars were hemorrhaging us. Now Trump is going to stop our interventions and focus on rebuilding economic infrastructure and getting better trade deals. Of course, it's not guaranteed that he will succeed but what's important is that the focus has shifted.

No, the US economy is not solely dependent on waging wars, that's absurd. Yes, there are some industries and individuals who profit from it, but they are only a small fraction of the total economy.