Why “America First” Will Make America Last

In the early 2000s, as I was about to graduate from college, I got together with my best friend from high school to kick back and catch up. Our friendship had been forged over countless hours of debate on matters of politics, philosophy, science, culture, and history. We often disagreed, but that didn’t matter. We learned a lot from each other. So it made perfect sense that his first question to me that evening was an out-of-the-blue entree into a discussion of geopolitics: “Do you think that America will still be the most powerful country in the world at the end of our lifetimes?” Remember, this was around 2002. The nineties had seen the end of the Cold War and the rise of America as the world’s lone “hyperpower.” The debacle of the Iraq War and the stain this would put on America’s reputation still lay in the future. We were riding high. So the question was apt, and important. I thought about it for a moment, and then, like the lawyer I would one day become, I said “it depends….” “It depends on what we do with this moment.” I continued. I was wrapping up a degree in International Studies with a focus on China, where I had lived and studied during my sophomore year. <a href="https://medium.com/predict/why-america-first-will-make-america-last-f0fb18bbd9c4">Visit Now</a>