ETATS-UNIS: UN REVE A REINVENTER

In: Politique internationale: pi, Band 132

Abstract

What's happening to the United States? The country that has always been known for its unshakable self-confidence, its absolute faith in its "manifest destiny", and an indomitable optimism, now seems depressed, sullen and worried. All the opinion polls and editorials in leading newspapers, congressional debates, and everyday conversations with citizens of this great nation testify to America's self-doubt. The reasons for the country's change of heart are many: the loss of its status as the world's only superpower with the emergence of China, the economic downturn that cruelly revealed the fragility of the American model, the deindustrialization that has blighted whole cities and sections of the population, the fear of immigration felt by some Americans, the inevitable disappointment following the excessively high hopes pinned on Barack Obama's election in 2008, etc. But every statement of doom and gloom contains an invitation to bounce back-as the United States has done so often in the past. Adapted from the source document.