Their loss of geopolitical and economic power is evident.

But Nigeria does not offer the premier example of the awesome power of the press.

Yet the dollar, a symbol of American financial power, has surged rather than declined.

For some people, raw military might is the only true measure of power.

The secret of extracting and working iron was a key factor in the success of the Philistines.

The second important miscalculation concerned the likely global reaction to America s exercise of its hegemonic power.

Europe was at the peak of its economic power relative to the rest of the world.

Indeed, all of Europe is in thrall to American power.

The Bush administration is internationally exposed in both the arrogance of its concepts and the limits of its power.

The problem with this concept is that it could only survive under the protection of American might.

The damage Bush s self confidence and self delusion has inflicted was magnified by his gross overestimation of America s power.

Indeed, all of Europe is in thrall to American power.

But the Arab world is divided about how to deal with the sudden rise in Iranian power.

A carrot is more effective than a stick if you wish to lead a mule to water, but a gun may be more useful if your aim is to deprive an opponent of his mule.

Now a second phase is underway, marked by a serious effort to divest the old military establishment of its power.

We no longer have large states driven by powerful, aggressive ideologies to remake the world in their own image by any means necessary.

Konrad Adenauers and Willi Brandts foreign policy achievements created the illusion of the German Chancellors power.

But whether economic or military resources produce more power in today s world depends on the context.

The major sources and uses of power in the world today are softer, although not weaker.

Today, however, they serve as a useful reminder about the danger of linear projections based on rapidly rising power resources.

It increased the terrorist threat by creating innocent victims, while leading to a precipitous decline in American power and influence.

Until recently, it was possible to speak of the rise of the rest without forecasting a decrease in American power.

CAMBRIDGE Asia s return to the center of world affairs is the great power shift of the twenty first century.

At the height of America s power, Russia had resigned itself to the apparently unstoppable encroachment of NATO on the Soviet Union s former sphere of influence.

A military build up will enable Moscow to effectively advance national interests and break new ground in global affairs.

To be sure, the US now has more power resources relative to other countries than Britain had at its imperial peak.

And the norms and rules that govern international institutions constitute a boundary on American power and thus as a check on its hegemony.

The era of Japanese militaristic and imperialist power has long gone, and the world is beating a path to China s door.

Given magnitude of settlement and the power of vested interests, a forced evacuation of the occupied territories is unthinkable. But any agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, will call for a first phase of evacuation of the at least 50,000 60,000 people living in the more distant and scattered settlements.

Chávez responded with intransigence, seeming to think that his hold on power depended on whether he could still turn out a big crowd.

Given magnitude of settlement and the power of vested interests, a forced evacuation of the occupied territories is unthinkable.

The Cold War s end has not led to greater US dominance, but rather to the dissemination of global power to many regions. East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East have new geopolitical and economic influence.

So those who recommend an imperial US foreign policy based on traditional military descriptions of American power are woefully misguided. In a three dimensional game, you will lose if you focus only on one board and fail to notice the other boards and the vertical connections among them.

It is also clear that the West s future role will depend on how America manages this new distribution of power.

So those who recommend an imperial US foreign policy based on traditional military descriptions of American power are woefully misguided.

At the height of its power, the Roman Empire spanned from Britain to the Arabic Peninsula, North Africa and Eastern Europe.

The women s movement in Morocco which now bridges secular and religious communities is setting an example of the power of social thought in a traditional society.

Yet, instead of building such an order, Obama s presidency has so far been a mighty struggle to stem the decline in American power.

Africa's independence leaders of the late 1950s and early 1960s essentially opposed tribal power.

His descendants fought with the Pretatti family for power for several generations, but never again attained the power of their ancestor.

The fact that a former president of Serbia, Ivan Stambolic, could disappear without a trace in 1999 is grim testimony to the power of Serbia's criminal underworld.

China and India gained considerable economic power, and close neighbors in previously isolated communist states were rapidly integrated in the European economy.

One can even say that the European Union has slowly become a normative force in the world in reaction to the evolution of America s power.

It follows the nationalist narrative Japan, a victim of the European colonial powers, sought only to protect the rest of Asia from them.

For example, in the seventeenth century, the Netherlands flourished domestically but declined in relative power as other states grew in strength.