’Destabilised’: Sign US is headed for ‘collapse’

Empires don’t just fall. They collapse.

Now, political analysts are wondering if it’s the turn of the United States.

Expect the unexpected.

The Cold War empire of the Soviet Union took just four years to tumble into oblivion.

The Western Roman Empire fragmented into its constituent states after its emperors lost control of their continent-spanning domain.

And the entire Bronze Age civilisation of the Eastern Mediterranean went from thriving to collapse over the course of just two decades under a barrage of economic, social and environmental upheaval.

In every case, the ruling elites lost the trust that bound their subjects to a common cause.

Social contracts were broken.

Peace. Prosperity. Opportunity.

The belief that better things were just around the corner.

History doesn’t repeat. But it does often rhyme.

“America’s current retreat from its engagements around the world — from gutting USAid to abandoning European allies — constitutes a surrender of power comparable in living memory only to Mikhail Gorbachev’s unilateral withdrawals,” argues McGill University associate professor of history James Krapfl.

After years of blood, sweat and tears, the Soviet Union abandoned its crusades in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.

Gorbachev cited Soviet hero Vladimir Lenin’s “pragmatism” as justification for his drastic move.

“That called into quest...
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