Role of the powerful in 21st Century

The bottom chessboard is the realm of cross-border transactions that occur outside of government control. It includes diverse non-state actors, such as bankers electronically transferring sums larger than most national budgets, and, at the other extreme, terrorists transferring weapons or hackers threatening cyber-security.

It also includes new challenges like pandemics and climate change.

On this bottom board, power is widely dispersed, and it makes no sense to speak of unipolarity, multipolarity, hegemony, or any other cliché. Even in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the giddy pace of technological change is likely to continue to drive globalisation and transnational challenges.

The problem for American power in the twenty-first century is that there are more and more things outside the control of even the most powerful state.
Although the US does well on military measures, there is much going on that those measures fail to capture.

Porous borders
Under the influence of the information revolution and globalisation, world politics is changing in a way that prevents America from achieving all its international goals acting alone. For example, international financial stability is vital to Americans’ prosperity, but the US needs the cooperation of others to ensure it.

Global climate change, too, will affect Americans’ quality of life, but the US cannot manage the problem alone. In a world where borders are more porous than ever to everything from drugs to infectious diseases to terrorism, America must help build international coalitions and institutions to address shared threats and challenges. In this sense, power becomes a positive sum game.

It is not enough to think in terms of power over others. One must also think in terms of power to accomplish goals. On many transnational issues, empowering others can help to accomplish one’s own goals. In this world, networks and connectedness become an important source of relevant power.

The problem of American power in the twenty-first century is not one of decline, but of recognising that even the most powerful country cannot achieve its aims without the help of others.

Nye, Jr is a professor at Harvard and author of ‘The Powers to Lead.’