Great American Myth

Great American Myth

Summary 1: The Great American Myth
In the essay, “The Great American Myth” by Samuel Huntington, he claims that a basic American empire does not exist and the fact that others believe this is occurring can provoke ill consequences. He argues that regardless of the fact we are the only superpower left, we don’t play the role of one due to other countries not going along with it. He proves that we’d be a true superpower if other countries needed us in one way or another. Huntington proves that an empire is a ruling power exercised by one nation over another nation, but dictates that we cannot be an empire since we have no direct rule over one nation. Also, Huntington sternly argues that the world is a “uni-polar world” in that there are four tiers or power throughout the world. He believes it starts as the U.S. as sole superpower, then major regional powers, such as Russia or China, followed by secondary regional powers, such as the United Kingdom and Poland, and finally, the remaining smaller nations and powers.
His biggest argument is that the U.S. has “significant interest on every part of the world” but doesn’t make any worldly efforts to stop growing problems like nuclear propagation. He believes that nuclear capabilities are a symbol of your power and the U.S. doesn’t show off their capabilities hence giving it a laid back role of a superpower. The biggest facet the United States has not been successful on promoting, Huntington feels, is democratization around the world. However, he ends with the opinion that the U.S. shouldn’t impose democracy on other nations because it could cause dangerous fallacies of other nations on our own. He believes once the world gets out of a “uni-polar” world and turns into a “multi-polar” world we will be on the right page.
Summary 2: Graduation Speech at West Point
George W. Bush addressed the graduating class of 2002 at the United States Military Academy at West Point to congratulate them...