ABSTRACT
In his The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria worries about American complacency, short-sided policies, and a nation caught up with its past successes in a rapidly changing world. Yet, at the end of the day, Zakaria emerges as an optimist for America’s future. Whatever this country’s shortcomings, he writes, “America has succeeded not because of the ingenuity of its government programs but because of the vigor of its society. It has thrived because it has kept itself open to the world-to goods and services, to ideas and inventions, and, above all, to people and cultures.”1 Zakaria’s words of hope and praise are predicated upon the assumption that American culture has a “can do” mentality, and that what has happened in the past will surely continue in the future. We confront imposing challenges and overcome them. at kind of thinking assumes an underlying foundation of agreed national purpose and citizen execution of those goals.
