Restoring America's Leadership Legitimacy

The United States has come to be seen as the other by the rest. There is now a gap between US power and US legitimacy. The argument could be made that the overarching security threat to the US today is the US itself and the resentment, resistance and reproach it has generated in the rest of the world, especially the non-western world.

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The great challenge is how to absorb the additional 3 billion in population into the global economy in a socially and politically sustainable way.

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The problem in meeting this challenge for the United States is that the global economy is seen as based on an American model, and thus globalisation is often viewed as Americanisation. Giving globalisation a human face and forging an economic model with social inclusion, greater equality and massive reductions in extreme poverty are now security issues for the United States, since it is identified in the rest of the world with exclusion, inequality and polarisation.

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Another vital global challenge is energy.

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America is no longer secure behind its nuclear weapons shield and its economic prowess. International security now depends on making persons secure in addition to making states secure; it is a matter of soft power, health and environmental stewardship rather than military and technological superiority alone.

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