USA AND THE WORLD AROUND

The United States of America is one of the richest countries in

the world. It played a prominent part in the Second World War and
brought an end to the war by joining the Allies against the Axis in
1941. Since then, it has assumed the role of an arbitrator in the world
to bring peace and order to the unruly world. It time and again
succeeded in stopping imminent wars between rival countries in the
last seven decades by timely interventions and often by show of
strength.

Till the 1990’s, the world saw cold war between the blocs
belonging to the United States of America and the then Soviet Union,
another super power aspiring for the world leadership. However, the
disintegration of the USSR and its ambition of world Communism made
the USA the unrivalled sole super power of the world in the last two
decades. World saw several attempts since then to create a bloc that
can stand up to the supremacy of the USA. While Russia is doing its
best to recover its glory of the days of the USSR as another super
power, China is rapidly forging ahead because of its rising financial
strength and industrial base supported by its huge consumer base and
committed political leadership. European Union is an attempt of
friendly challenge to the USA. Also, there are attempts of forming blocs
of regional or like-minded countries to form viable bases of political or
financial powers in the world.

JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA

Japan and Australia are close allies of the USA. Their strategic
geographical positions as well as their financial and industrial might
are a great source of strength to the ambitions of the USA for the world
leadership.

The South Eastern region of Asia is strategic to the interests of

the United States of America in its power game because of the
presence of China in close proximity to this region. A powerful
presence of the United States of America in this region consolidates its
position to lessen China’s challenge.

Australia and Japan are keys to the United States of America in

this region in this sense. They help consolidate the United States of
America interests in this region against China. They being developed
countries, regional powers and economic giants help the process.
United States of America wants India as an alternate ally in this region
against the ambitions of China.

Both Japan and Australia are proven allies of the USA. The war in
Iraq proved the fact sine dubio. Chinese continued claim on the Indian
border state of Arunachal Pradesh and Chinese aggression on India in
1962 for this reason render China and its rise as a world or regional
power a potential military threat to India’s interests. This is the
bedrock at which India welcomes the political and military interests of
the USA in this region. Joint military exercises of the defence forces of
India and the USA are products of this mutual interest.

WEST ASIA

Oil is going to hold the future of the world. The countries that
control oil interests will rule the world. Saudi Arabia has vast oil fields
and tops the list of oil producing countries. USA shares an honour
among the top ten oil producing countries. However, the amount of oil
produced by America is not enough to keep its industries afloat for
long. That is the reason why America wants to control more oil. Most of
the Arab countries have vast resources of oil. This is why most of the
developed countries including the USA want Arab countries as allies.

The riches of oil brought prestige, wealth and political

manoeuvrability to most of the oil rich Arabian countries. It converted
West Asia to an intense political hotbed. Only its Jewish lobby and
commitment to Israel checkmate aggressive policies of the USA in this
region to befriend Arab countries. It is because of the Israel policy of
the USA that the relations between the Arab countries and United
States of America have been deteriorating very swiftly. Islamic
fundamentalism and terrorism as a world phenomenon as represented
by Al-Qaeda are the direct outcome of this turn of events in the world
politics.

CHINA

China and the United States of America are two most powerful
countries in the world at present and naturally rivals for the world
hegemony. Yet they need each other economically; both depend on
the consumer base and the economic strength of the other for their
own economic prosperity. There may be a long race ahead between
these countries for the economic leadership of the world.

NORTH KOREA

A few countries including Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea are
marked by the USA as rogue countries needed to be disciplined for
their acts against the world order and peace. The present focus of the
USA is on Iran and North Korea for their nuclear ambitions in violation
of the world opinion. Both countries have made considerable progress
in producing nuclear bombs and North Korea has already declared to
the world that it is in possession of nuclear weapons and necessary
missile technology to use it and does not hesitate to use it if any
country attacks it. This is a direct challenge to the USA considering
these two countries being neighbours across the Pacific Ocean and
their consistently inimical relationship since the Korea War of 1950s.
North Korea traded off missile technology to Pakistan to acquire
nuclear technology from the latter in late 1990s. The mastery of North
Korea in both nuclear and missile technologies is a potential security
threat to the USA across the Pacific Ocean and its assets in the Pacific
Ocean a la Japan in 1941 in the Second World War. It is unrealistic to
presume that the USA would be a mute spectator to the potential
danger to its interests and security without proactive measures either
of political or military kind.

AL-QAEDA

The United States of America has been fighting against Al-Qaeda

from September 2001 since the 9/11 attacks on WTC and this war
against an invisible enemy is looking as if it will go on forever. The Al-
Qaeda supremo namely Osama bin Laden continues to inspire and
guide his followers and terrorists from unknown territories somewhere
deep in Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He is hiding and guiding his army
of terrorists from unknown mountainous regions populated and
surrounded by sympathizers. The only way out is to infiltrate the
organisation of Osama bin Laden. All efforts of the CIA and the USA in
this regard failed to produce desired results till now.
CIA & FBI

The strength of the United States of America is the way they run
their agencies to solve, control and prevent crimes in and against the
country. The two agencies worth naming are the CIA and the FBI. They
are both very powerful organisations and well known all over the world
for their efficiency and workmanship. However, these organisations
also inadvertently get involved in scandals that cast dirt on their
names and reputations.

The CIA or the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of

America is the most powerful detective agency in the world. Recently,
a CIA agent by name Mrs. Plame, wife of a senator, was accidentally
unhooded by Karl Rove, a prominent government servant. This is a
black spot on the annals of the history of the CIA. It is surmised that
political rivalry at the top leaderships of the country brought about this
serious let down of an important CIA agent, which was a great loss to
both the CIA and the United States of America.

ROBOTIC WARFARE

There are wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States of

America is the country that is fighting against both is resorting to
robotic warfare of late wherein robot-aircraft are used to bombard
enemy territories in inaccessible mountainous terrains like the borders
of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These robot-aircrafts are known as
Predators and proved to be successful in spite of civilian casualties in
eliminating dangerous enemies, who otherwise would have
successfully avoided the military attacks of the USA and NATO forces.

PEOPLE OF THE USA

Perhaps people of no other country in the world match the people of

the USA in their sense of decency, fairness, justice, generosity, charity,
love of scholarship and entrepreneurship. They believe in helping
people all over the world. They fought against their own government
against inhuman acts of their army in Vietnam War, and again in Iraq
War. They stood against Guotanamo tortures. People of which other
country would have deified Afro-American stars like Michael Johnson
and Serena and Venus and many more in cultural and sports field and
elected a descendent of Muslim forefathers from Africa as their
president? They generously contributed for the relief of the tsunami-
hit people and other natural disasters all over the world. People like Bill
Gates and the Fords always helped unfortunate people all over the
world. They are the harbingers of the think-tank phenomena to give
intellectual slant to world affairs and matters of public interest. No
other countries in the world have so many professors and scholars as
political leaders heading various organs of the Government.