Noam Chomsky Exclusive: A Conversation on the Waning of American Power

Noam Chomsky Exclusive: A Conversation on the Waning of American Power: 

 Noam Chomsky's voice is a soft lament as he talks of the land of his birth, a land at odds with itself. "American imperial influence has diminished," he tells me, "but we should remember that American power has been on the wane since 1945. The peak of US power was immediately after the Second World War and it has been declining steadily since then."

It's a statement borne out by the current stand-off in Syria, which, I suggest, is the foreign soil upon which the US and Russia are fighting each other. "There's a sense that they are, but I don't think it's real," is Chomsky's refined judgment. "Certainly, the US and Russia have different interests, so there's a conflict."

But there is also the sense the US continues to influence international events to obtain some semblance of its once vaulted status, with foreign policy failures evidence of diminishing global power, and as Chomsky colours his words with a logician's certitude, he leaves little room for argument.

But one would argue with him, if he let you. He lays it on the line. "Since the late 1940s, power has been diversified. In 1949, China became independent, which was a serious blow to the US imperial system based on the idea of controlling Asia via the control of China. Since then, Latin America has also escaped US control.