“The irony is that the rise of the rest (of the world) is a consequence of American ideas and actions. For sixty years, American politicians and diplomats have traveled around the world pushing countries to open their markets, free up their politics, and embrace trade and technology. We have urged peoples in distant lands to take up the challenge of competing in the global economy, freeing up their currencies, and developing new industries. We counseled them to be unafraid of change learn the secrets of our success. And it worked: the natives have gotten good at capitalism. But now we are becoming suspicious of the very things we have long celebrated- free markets, trade, immigration, and technological change. And all this is happening when the tide is going our way. Just as the world is opening up, America is closing down.”

“ Generations from now, when historians write about these times, they might note that, in the early decades of twenty-first century, the United States succeeded in its great and historic mission- it globalized the world. But along the way, they might write, it forgot to globalize itself.”

From “The Post-American World” by Fareed Zakaria

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