Does Demography Favor American “Unipolarity”?
Just how long America’s “unipolar moment” may last is, naturally, a matter of speculation. The latest version of the National Security Strategy of the United States, released by the White House in September 2002, implies that the moment could continue indefinitely-and that U.S. policies could facilitate its indefinite continuation. Some analysts, on the other hand, believe that the moment is likely to be fleeting,[2] while others argue with equal vehemence that “structural factors” in the international security equation favor the maintenance of American pre-eminence for many years to come.[3] For those who envision an impending end to U.S. international pre-eminence, a principal candidate for restoring “multipolarity” to the world system is a Europe genuinely whole and free–i.e., a Europe united under the aegis of the ongoing European Union (EU) project. (The other oft-bruited candidate is China.) Yet even those who talk of a possible future European Supermacht point to a number of st
