[Opinion] World`s Only Superpower

The G8, a summit attended by leaders from the world`s most powerful countries, has ended with a raft of well-meaning declarations. But many say that it only served to highlight the superpower of the U.S. World leaders were so eagerly seeking to have private hours with George W. Bush and avoid getting his nerves that some even argued that G8 is nothing but world statesmen posing for the camera. When the post-cold war era began, many scholars agreed that the U.S. would not be able to lead the world by itself. Yet, the news from the latest G8 summit is all about the victory of U.S. unilateralism. Bush even left the summit a day earlier as if he sent the `Pax Americana` message to the world.

The U.S. was able to become what it is today thanks to its economic power. According to statistics recently released by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the combined economic power (based on GDP) of 6 advanced countries, Russia, China, Japan, France, Germany and Britain, was 1.7 times stronger than that of U.S. in 1990 ($9.051 vs. $5.423), but the figure was narrowed down to 1.2 times in 1999. Prof. John Ikenberry at George Washington University noted in his book titled `America without Challengers` that while U.S. economy grew 27% from 1990 through 1998, European Union and Japan saw their economies modestly grow at 15% and 9% respectively. Over the past decade, the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world was widened in terms of economic power and this trend is expected to continue for some time.

When it comes to military power, U.S. literally overwhelms the rest. Dr. Bruce Burkowitz, an expert on intelligence and military strategies at the Hoover Institute, wrote in his latest book that all the countries in the world are forecast to spend $750 billion on national defense in 2003, with U.S. accounting for $380 billion of the total. So far it has been said that U.S. military budget exceeds that of top 14 countries (from No. 2 to No. 15) combined, but it might soon be said that U.S. tops the rest of the world in military spending. Furthermore, Washington plans to increase military budget by $20 billion a year over the next six years.

Experts point to that U.S. has also grown strong in invisible parts of power - patriotism and national strategies - since the Sept. 11 attacks. It was able to tear down the Iraqi Saddam Hussein government, which had been a headache for more than a decade, almost for itself in three weeks. And now North Korea is facing head-to-head with the superpower leveraging its nuclear program. Watching the game unfolding right beside, we cannot but feel sorry as well as insecure.

songmh@donga.com